THFi^fflll 

THEtUBMlRINE 


clifiEb 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

Class 


THE   STORY   OF   THE   SUBMARINE 


THE    STORY  OF  THE 
SUBMARINE 


FROM   THE   EARLIEST  AGES    TO    THE 
PRESENT  DAY 


LIEUT.-COL.  AND  BREVET-COL.  CYRIL  FIELD 

u 

Royal  Marine  Light  Infantry 


WITH    UPWARDS   OF    IOO   ILLUSTRATIONS 
BY  THE  AUTHOR 


OF    THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


PHILADELPHIA 

J.   B.   LIPPINCOTT   COMPANY 

LONDON:   SAMPSON  LOW,  MARSTON  &  CO.,  LTD. 


/M 


PEEFACE 

THE  Submarine  Torpedo-boat  is  a  new  addition  to  the  arma- 
ments of  the  Naval  Powers.  But  its  evolution  has  been  the 
work  of  centuries.  Vague  accounts  of  submersible  vessels 
filter  down  to  us  from  the  Middle  Ages,  while  there  are  plenty 
of  accounts  of  divers  who,  with  and  without  special  appliances 
to  enable  them  to  remain  under  water,  were  employed  in 
warfare  hundreds  of  years  before  Christ  and  for  many  centuries 
afterwards. 

In  the  pages  of  the  little  volume  now  before  the  reader,  the 
author  has  endeavoured  to  give  an  outline  of  the  history  of 
Submarine  Warfare  and  Navigation  from  the  Earliest  Ages 
to  the  Present  Day.  He  has  studied  to  avoid  technicalities 
and  diagrams,  which,  valuable  and  useful  as  they  are  in  more 
ambitious  works,  are,  in  his  opinion,  out  of  place  in  a  book 
which  is  intended  merely  to  satisfy  the  curiosity  of  the  "  man 
in  the  street,"  and  for  the  amusement  of  the  casual  reader, 
without  aiming  at  being  a  work  of  reference.  Finally,  the 
author  has  to  acknowledge  the  valuable  assistance  he  has 
received  in  his  compilation  from  the  works  of  N.  Pesce,  Alan 
H.  Burgoyne,  and  Maurice  Delpeuch,  which  are  each  and  all 
of  them  most  comprehensive  books  of  reference  on  Submarine 
Navigation.  He  is  especially  indebted  to  Mr.  Burgojne,  for 
his  kind  permission  to  make  use  of  the  numerous  diagrams 
and  drawings  in  his  "  Submarine  Navigation"  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  illustrations. 

C.  F. 


203796 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER    I 

PAGE 

The  Divers  and  Diving  Apparatus  of  Antiquity  and  the  Middle 

Ages — Mediaeval  references  to  Submarine  Navigation          .       3 

CHAPTER    II 

Bourne's  and  Drebbel's  Submarines — Submarines,  '« Water- 
mines,"  etc.,  for  Buckingham's  Expedition  to  the  Isle  of 
Rh4 — Prince  Rupert's  attempt  to  blow  up  the  Leopard  in 
the  Tagus — The  Submarine  proposed  by  Fathers  Mersenne 
and  Fournier  in  1634 17 

CHAPTER    III 

Bishop  Wilkins'  fantastic  ideas,  1648 — De  Son's  Rotterdam 
Ship,  1653 — Borelli  and  Symons'  Submarines — Ciminius 
and  Doligny's  projects — Dionois'  Submarine — Day's  fatal 
experiment  in  Plymouth  Sound 33 

CHAPTER    IV 

"Explosion  Ships  " — The  "  Devil  Ships  "  of  Antwerp — Benbow's 
"  Infernal  " — Bushnell'e  "  Turtles  " — His  attempts  to  blow 
up  H.M.SS.  Eagle  and  Cerberus 45 

CHAPTER    V 

Robert  Fulton,  his  schemes  and  inventions — The  Nautilus — 

The  attack  on  the  Boulogne  Flotilla,  1804 — The  Mute          .     61 

CHAPTER    VI 

Under-water  attacks  in  the  American  War  of  1812 — Attacks  on 
H.M.SS.  Ramillies  and  Hogue — The  brothers  Couessins' 
Submarine — Johnson's  Submarine,  intended  to  provide  for 
Napoleon's  escape  from  St.  Helena — Cervo's,  Payerne's, 

and  Philips'  Submarines 73 

vii 


viii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   VII 

PAGE 

The  story  of  Bauer,  the  German  Inventor  of  Submarines — His 
Brandtaucher — The  Didble  Marin  built  for  Russia — Sub- 
marine affairs  during  the  Crimean  War — Deschamps  and 
Vilcoquet's  Submarine — Conseil's  boat — The  Ictineo  of 
Narciso  Monturiol  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .85 

CHAPTER   VIII 

Villeroi's  Submarine  for  the  United  States  Government — The 
Submarine  built  by  Admiral  Bourgeois  and  Engineer  Brun 
—  Her  trials  —  Alstitt's  Submarine  —  The  Confederate 
Davids — The  attack  on  the  New  Ironsides — Hunley's 
David 97 

CHAPTER    IX 

The  disastrous  trials  of  Hunley's  David — Drowns  crew  after 
crew — Sinks  the  Housatonic  and  goes  down  with  her — Herr 
Flach's  Submarine  and  her  fate  off  Valparaiso  .  .  .109 

CHAPTER    X 

Halstead's  Intelligent  Whale — The  first  "  Holland  "  boat— The 
Rev.  G.  W.  Garret's  two  Submarines — Drzewiecki's  "  Po- 
dascophe  "  and  her  successor — More  "  Holland  "  boats — 
Nordenfeldt's  boats  and  their  trials  at  Landskrona  and 
Constantinople — Loss  of  Nordenfeldt  III  off  Jutland  .  121 

CHAPTER    XI 

Progress  of  Submarine  Invention  during  the  'eighties — 
Campbell  and  Ash's  Nautilus  and  her  trial  at  Tilbury 
Docks — Professor  Tuck's  Peacemaker — Holland's  fourth 
and  fifth  boats — The  Goubet  boat — Waddington's  Porpoise 
— The  Gymnote  and  the  Peral 135 

CHAPTER    XII 

Early  German  Submarines — The  Italian  Submarines  Pullino 
and  Delfino — Van  Witten's  big  Submarine — The  famous 
Gustave  Zede,  her  trials  and  Manoeuvre  Exploits — The 
Goubet  II — What  a  Descent  is  like — Fontes'  Submarines — 
Alvary  Templo's  "  Aquapede " — Simon  Lake's  first 
attempt — The  Argonaut  Junior — More  "  Holland  "  Sub- 
marines— The  "Baker"  boat  ,  ,  .  149 


CONTENTS  ix 

CHAPTER   XIII 

PAGE 

Modern   British,    French,  and   German  Submarines  and  their 

adoption  by  these  Naval  Powers 165 

CHAPTER    XIV 

The    Submarines    of    the    United    States,    Russian,    Italian, 

Japanese,  and  some  minor  Navies        .         .         .         .          .181 

CHAPTER    XV 

Automatic  Submarines  —  The  Whitehead  torpedo  —  The 
"  Schwartzkopf "  torpedo— The  Howell,  Peck,  Hall,  and 
Berdan  torpedoes — Brennan's  wire-controlled  torpedo — 
Other  similar  devices — The  Orling- Armstrong,  "  Aetinaut  " 
torpedo  and  "  Armorl "  boat  .  .  .  .  .  .193 

CHAPTER    XVI 

Semi-submarine  vessels — Nasmyth's  "  Anti-Invasion  Floating 
Mortar,"  1853 — Semi-submarine  rams — The  Manassas,  the 
Katahdin,  and  the  Polyphemus — The  Keo-Kuk,  Stromboli, 
and  Spuyten-Duivel — Legrand's  proposed  Submersible 
Monitor — Submersible  Ironclad  for  the  Prussian  Govern- 
ment— Berkeley  and  Hotchkiss'  and  Lagane's  Semi- 
submarine  Boats  ........  209 

CHAPTER    XVII 

Submarine  Workers  and  Diving  boats — Newton's  boat — Dr. 
Payerne's  Submarines — Lambert's  weird  Diving-boat, 
1852 — Raeber's  and  Merriam's  boats — Pozzo's  spherical 
Submarine  Worker  La  France — The  Audace — Simon  Lake's 
Argonaut  I  and  Argonaut  II — Experiences  on  board — 
Pino's  Submarine  Worker  and  the  Bou-Korn  .  .  .223 

CHAPTER    XVIII 

Some  Projects  for  Submarines — Montgery's  L' Invisible,  1825 — 
Castera's  Designs  for  Submarines — Althabegoity's  "Hydro- 
scaphe  " — Bauer's  "  Briiler  des  Cotes" — Hubault's  Sub- 
marine— Lieutenant  Hovgaard's  Plans  for  a  Submarine 
Vessel — Apostoloff's  and  Lacavalerie's  weird  Revolving 
Submarines — Rogers'  Telescopic  Boat  ,  237 


x  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   XIX 

PAGE 

More  Ideas  for  Submarines — Tomassi's  "  Hemi-plongeur  " — 
Jacquemin's  proposed  Semi-submarine — Gerber's  fantastic 
design — De  Souza's  Triple  Submarine — Elias'  little  vessel 
Holler's  queer  design — Ponthus'  Submarine — Goubet'e 
proposed  Transatlantic  Submarine — Burgoyne's  design 
for  a  Submarine  Torpedo-boat  with  armoured  deck — 
Submarines  proposed  by  Fife,  Haipar,  Neves,  and  Simpson  251 

CHAPTER    XX 

Recent  Submarine  Disasters  and  Accidents — Loss  of  the  Al — 
Explosion  on  board  the  A5-  -Sinking  of  the  ^48 — Founder- 
ing of  the  Russian  Submarine  Delphin — Loss  of  the 
Farfadet — Sinking  of  the  Lutin — Slighter  mishaps  .  .  265 

CHAPTER    XXI 

The  Future  of  the  Submarine — Can  Submarines  fight  each 
other  ? — Submarines  versus  Mines — Disabilities  of  the  Sub- 
marine— Her  "  blindness  "  under  water — Periscopes,  Omni- 
scopes,  Optical  Tubes,  etc. — Captain  Mahan's  Opinion  on 
the  Submarine — How  can  Submarines  be  attacked  ? — 
Experiments  at  Portsmouth — Motor-boat  to  "  run  down  " 
Submarines — What  has  the  Automobile  Torpedo  done  as 
yet  ? — The  Submarine  an  Untried  Weapon — Future  of 
Working  and  Passenger  Submarines — Conclusion  .  .277 

APPENDIX    I 

Chronological  List  of  the  Principal  Designs  for  Submarine  and 
Semi-submarine  Vessels  from  A..D.  1190  to  A.D.  1900  in- 
clusive   289 

APPENDIX    II 

Table  of  Submarine  Vessels  built,  building  or  projected  for  the 

Navies  of  the  World  .  299 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTKATIONS 


FULL -PAGE  ILLUSTRATIONS  IN  HALF-TONE,  ETC. 

Alexander  the  Great  under  Water  in  a  Glass  Barrel. 

Coloured  Frontispiece 

PACING  PAGE 

A  Diver  cuts  the  Enemy's  Cables  at  the  Battle  of  Bonifacio  .  14 

De  Son's  Boat:  Interior  (1653) 34 

36 

The  English  "  Infernal  "  blowing  up  against  the  walls  of 

Saint-Malo 50 

BushnelTs  Navigator  abandons  his  attempt  upon  H.M.S. 

Eagle  .  ....  54 
The  "  Catamaran  "  Attack  on  the  French  Flotilla  at  Boulogne, 

1804 68 

H.M.S.  Ramitties  attacked  by  a  Submarine  ....  74 

Bauer  and  the  Russian  Sentry 90 

The  New  Ironsides  attacked  by  a  Confederate  David  .  .104 
The  David  sinks  with  the  Housatonic  .  .  .  .  .112 
The  "  Dummy  "  Submarine.  A  recent  ruse  in  Naval  Warfare. 

(By  favour  of  the  Sphere) 144 

The  Gustave  Zede  at  Ajaccio,  1901 152 

A  Submarine  caught  at  the  surface  by  Destroyers.  .  .160 

Divers  from  a  modern  "  Lake  "  Submarine  cutting  Mine  Cables  184 
Observing  her  Handiwork — a  Submarine  coming  up  after 

torpedoing  a  Battleship  ...  .  .  200 
The  Keo-Kuk  overwhelmed  by  Fort  Sumter  .  .  .  .216 
"  Sowers  of  Death."  Mine-layers  at  work.  (By  favour  of  the 

Sphere) 224 

The  Chevalier  Pino's  Submarine  at  work  ....  232 

Balloon  looking  for  Submarines.  (By  favour  of  the  Sphere)  .  256 

The  Loss  of  the  Al 266 


xii  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PACING  PAGE 

Searching  for  the  Al.     (By  favour  of  the  Sphere)  .         .         .     268 
The  Lose  of  the  Lutin.     Her  interior.     (By  favour  of  the 

Sphere) 272 

Destroyers  trying  to  "  net  "  a  Submarine       .         .         .         .278 
A  Destroyer  attacking  a  Submarine  with  a  Spar-torpedo      .     282 


LINE    ILLUSTRATIONS    IN    THE    TEXT 

PAGE 

Another  version  of  Alexander  the  Great's  Submarine  Adven- 
ture ..........         5 

Diving     Helmet.     From     Vegetius.      (Block     from     Pesce's 

"Navigation  Sous -marine")       ......         8 

Diving  Dress,  circ.   1500 10 

Mediaeval  Diving  Dresses.     From  the  Ambras  Collection        .        1 1 
Diver  with  Gourd  of  Air.     From  Vegetius     .         .         .         .12 

An  Under- water  Warrior.     From  Vegetius      .         .         .         .13 

The  Pirates  of  Gruntland.     (Block  from  Pesce's  "  Navigation 

Sous-marine ")  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .15 

Diver  Salving  a  Cannon.     From  Diego  Ufano        ...       20 
Bourne's  proposed  Submarine,   1578       .         .         .         .         .21 

Athwartships  section  of  the  same  .         .         .         .         .         .23 

Papin's  Submarine,  1692 24 

Borelli's  design  for  a  Submarine  ......       37 

"Devil  Ships  of  Antwerp"   1585 47 

The    "Infernal"  used  by  the  English  at  Saint-Malo.     From 

Grose's  "  Military  Antiquities "          .....       49 

Bushnell's    "Turtle,"    1776 53 

Fulton's  Nautilus,  1800 65 

American  "Torpedo  Pilot,"  1812 75 

Philips'  Submarine,  1851 80 

Philips'  Second  Boat 81 

Bauer's  Brandtaucher,  1850 86 

Bauer's  Diable  Marin,  1855 88 

Bourgeois  and  Brun's  Plongeur,  1863        .....       99 

A  Confederate  David,  1863 102 

The  boat  that  sank  the  Housatonic,  1864 Ill 

Flach's  Submarine,  1866  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .115 

The  Intelligent  Whale,  1872 122 

Holland  I,   1875 123 

Garret's  Resurgam,  1879.     (By  favour  of  the  Engineer)          .      124 

Nordenfeldt  II,  1887 128 

Nordenfeldt  III,  1889 131 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  xiii 

PAGE 

The  "  CampbeU-Ash  "  Boat,  1884 136 

Tuck's  Peacemaker,  1884 138 

The  Goubet  I,  1885 140 

The  "Waddington"  Submarine,  1885 141 

The  Gymnote,  1888 143 

The  Peral,   1887 144 

The  Gustave  Zede,  1893 151 

Alvary-Templo  Aquapede  1896 157 

The  Argonaut  Junior,  1895 158 

The  Holland  VII  or  Plunger,  1897 159 

The  Holland  VIII,  1902 160 

The  "Baker"  Boat,  1892 161 

The  Holland  X 166 

The  "A"  Class  Submarine 167 

The  "  B  "  Class  Submarine 168 

The  "C"  Class  Submarine 169 

The  French  Submarine  Narval        .         .         .         .         .         .171 

Farfadet 172 

„  „  Bonite 173 

„  „  Algerien 174 

„  „  Ventose 175 

Early  German  Submarine,  1901 176 

The  "Equevilley"  or  Germania  Submarine    ....      177 

Burger's  Semi- submarine          .         .         .         .         .          .         .182 

The  Russian  Submarine  Ossetyr  (ex  Protector)       .         .         .185 
The  Italian  Submarine  Narvalo       ......      187 

The  Dutch  Submarine  Luctor  et  Emergo 188 

The  Automatic  Torpedoes: 

Lupuis'  Automatic  Fireehip — Whitehead,   1870 — Modern 
Whitehead— Modern  "  Schwartzkopf  "— Howell,  1888— 

Modern  Bliss-Leavitt 195 

The  Wire-controlled  Torpedoes  Brennan,  Automobil**    Sims- 
Edison,  and  "Victoria" .199 

Nikola  Tesla's  "  Wireless  "  Boat     ....  .202 

The  Lalande's  "  Wireless  "  Torpedo 203 

The  Orling- Armstrong  "Wireless"  "Armorl"  Boat      .         .     204 
"Actinaut"  Torpedo  .         .         .     205 

Nasmyth's  "Floating  Mortar,"  1853 210 

The  Manassas  Ram,  1861 213 

The  Katahdin  Ram,  1893 .      214 

The  Polyphemus  Ram,  1881 .215 

The  Keo-Kuk  and  Spuyten-Duivel,  1864-5       .         ,         .         .217 


xiv  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAOB 

Lagane's  Semi-submersible,  1880 219 

Dr.  Payerne's  "Pyrhydrostat,"  1854 225 

UAudace,  Working  Boat,  1892 228 

The  Argonaut  I  and  //,  1897  and  1900     .....      230 

The  Bou-Korn,  1903 233 

The  proposed  "  Althabegoity  "  Boat,   1856     ....      240 

Bauer's  "Bruleur  des  Cotes,"  1861 241 

Hovgaard's  proposed  Submarine,   1887  .....     242 

Apostoloff  s  proposed  Submarine,   1889 244 

Lacavalerie's  proposed  Submarine,  1894  ....     245 

Rogers'  proposed  Submarine,  1894  ......      246 

Vogt's  Semi-submarine,  1898 247 

Tomassi's  "  Hemi-Plongeur,"  1876 252 

Delavaque's  proposed  Submarine,  1874.  ....  253 
Jacquemin's  proposed  Submarine,  1884  .  .  .  .  .253 
Burgoyne's  proposed  Armoured  Submarine,  1904  .  .  .257 
Simpson's  proposed  Submarine,  1906  .  .  .  .  .261 
A  Transatlantic  Submarine  Liner  in  the  Year  — ?  286 


CHAPTER    I 
B.C.  415-A.D.  1559 


CHAPTER    I 
B.C.  415-A.D.  1559 

The  Divers  and  Diving  Apparatus  of    Antiquity    and  the  Middle 
Ages — Mediaeval  references   to   Submarine  Navigation. 

CONTRARY  to  the  generally  conceived  idea  that  submarine 
warfare  is  one  of  the  latest  phases  of  Naval  Science,  under- 
water attack  is  one  of  the  most  ancient  modes  of  assailing  an 
enemy's  ship.  To  arrive  at  the  beginning  of  "  war  under 
water  "  we  must  go  back  many  centuries  and  poke  about  for 
information  in  the  mists  of  antiquity  and  the  monkish  legends 
of  the  Middle  Ages. 

Alexander  the  Great,  who  died  B.C.  324,  is  said  to  have  had 
divers  in  his  employ  who  made  use  of  apparatus  enabling  them 
to  remain  under  water  for  a  considerable  time,  and  there  are 
pictures  in  old  manuscripts  which  represent  that  monarch 
himself  exploring  the  wonders  of  the  deep  in  a  glass  barrel 
let  down  by  chains  from  a  ship  at  the  surface.  But  this  barrel 
story  must  be  received  with  the  utmost  reserve,  for  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  Alexander  the  Great  occupied  the  place  now 
reserved  for  Baron  Munchausen  and  De  Rougemont.  His 
remarkable  adventures  formed  the  theme  of  many  a  story 
both  in  prose  and  in  verse,  and  were,  in  point  of  fact,  fairy 
tales  pure  and  simple.  Even  now  the  exploits  of  the  "  Two- 
horned  Alexander  " *  form  the  staple  of  many  of  the  tales 
related  by  the  story-tellers  of  the  Indian  Peninsula. 

But  it  is  very  certain  that  he  knew  what  there  was  to  kno  w 

1  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Alexander's  horse  in  the  above 
MS.  is  depicted  with  a  pair  of  horns. 

3 


4  THE   STORY   OF   THE   SUBMARINE 

about  submarine  attack  in  his  day,  and  had  experienced  its 
formidable  nature  himself ;  for  at  the  siege  of  Tyre,  B.C.  332, 
the  cables  of  his  ships  were  cut  by  his  enemy's  divers,  while 
the  huge  breakwater  with  which  he  tried  to  "  bottle  up  "  their 
harbour  was  also  destroyed  by  their  efforts. 

Whether  these  divers  had  any  special  apparatus  to  enable 
them  to  work  under  water  is  unknown,  but  Aristotle  distinctly 
states  that  there  was  in  his  day  an  instrument  to  supply  them 
with  air  when  below  water,  "  like  the  trunk  of  an  elephant  " — 
a  tube,  in  fact,  such  as  is  used  at  the  present  time ;  and  he 
refers  also  to  the  use  of  a  diving-bell  in  this  very  siege. 

Pliny,  too,  has  some  story  about  a  diving  apparatus  ; 
Calluricus  is  said  to  have  invented  a  submarine  gun,  or  instru- 
ment for  the  propulsion  of  Greek  fire  ;  while  Lucullus  is 
reported  to  have  sent  a  messenger  from  a  besieged  port  in  a 
distended  goatskin,  in  which  he  passed  unharmed  through 
the  enemy's  fleet,  being  mistaken  for  a  fish.  Here,  apparently, 
was  something  very  like  a  submarine  boat. 

But  there  were  plenty  of  expert  divers  in  ancient  times  who 
were  capable  of  swimming  under  water  and  remaining  a 
wonderfully  long  time  below  the  surface  without  the  aid  of 
any  apparatus  at  all,  and  such  men  were  not  infrequently 
employed  for  the  purposes  of  naval  warfare. 

One  of  the  most  renowned  of  these  amphibians  was  Scyllis 
of  Scyone,  who,  according  to  Herodotus,  was  employed  by 
Xerxes  in  his  expedition  against  Greece.  This  gentleman,  for 
some  reason  or  another,  deserted  to  the  Greeks,  and  brought 
about  the  loss  of  several  Persian  vessels  which  were  at  anchor. 
It  was  heavy  weather  and  blowing  hard,  but,  taking  with  him 
his  daughter  Cyane,  who  was  as  good  a  diver  as  her  father, 
he  went  down,  and,  cutting  their  cables,  let  them  drive  to 
destruction.  According  to  Pausanias  this  famous  diver  could 
swim  as  much  as  eighty  stadia  under  water.  We  may  believe 
as  much  of  this  as  we  please. 

Thucydides  also  has  stories  to  tell  of  divers  in  warfare  so 


6  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

far  back  as  B.C.  415-13,  when  the  celebrated  siege  of  Syracuse 
took  place.  He  relates  that  the  entrance  to  a  portion  of  the 
harbour  was  defended  by  a  species  of  submarine  stockade  of 
piles  driven  into  the  mud.  The  Athenians,  he  says,  utilised 
divers  to  remove  these.  They  cut  them  off  under  water  close 
to  the  bottom,  after  which  a  specially  protected  raft  was  sent 
in  with  working  parties,  who  removed  the  floating  obstructions. 
Another  old  writer  on  military  matters,  Philon,  a  Jew  of 
Alexandria,  born  about  B.C.  20,  also  discusses  the  use  of  divers 
in  warlike  operations.  He  suggests  that  night  is  the  most 
favourable  time  for  their  enterprises,  and  that  they  should  be 
utilised  not  only  for  cutting  the  cables  of  the  enemy's  ships, 
but  also  to  bore  holes  in  their  bottoms  by  means  of  augers. 
This  would  appear  a  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  undertaking, 
but,  apparently,  it  could  be  done  by  some  means  or  the  other, 
for  the  employment  of  this  mode  of  attack  is  frequently  re- 
ferred to  by  writers  of  the  Middle  Ages,  as  we  shall  see  farther 
on. 

Early  in  the  Christian  era,  at  the  siege  of  Byzantium  by 
Septimus  Severus  in  A.D.  196,  we  find  the  divers  belonging  to 
the  besieged  again  at  the  old  game  of  cutting  the  cables  of 
the  enemy's  ships.  But  on  this  occasion  they  improved  upon 
former  practitioners  of  their  art,  by  attaching  long  ropes  to 
the  Roman  galleys,  by  which  they  were  drawn  towards  the 
town  and  away  from  their  consorts. 

Early  in  the  Middle  Ages  we  again  come  across  vague  and 
fragmentary  information  as  to  submarine  warfare,  and  even 
navigation.  Bohaddin,  an  Arabian  historian  who  lived  about 
A.D.  1150,  mentions  that  some  kind  of  submarine  apparatus 
was  used  in  order  to  enable  a  diver  to  get  into  Ptolemais  with 
a  message,  when  that  city  was  besieged  by  the  Crusaders. 
Again,  a  German  poem  written  in  1190,  entitled  "  Salman  and 
Morolf,"  makes  the  latter  build  a  diving-boat  of  leather,  in 
which  he  escapes  from  a  dozen  of  his  enemies'  galleys  and 
hides  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea  for  no  less  than  fourteen  days, 


ANTIQUITY    AND    THE    MIDDLE    AGES  7 

during  which  time  he  supplies  himself  with  air  through  a  long 
tube.  It  is  said  that  there  was  once  a  drawing  of  this  sub- 
marine in  the  manuscript,  but  that  it  was  stolen — more's  the 
pity.1  It  would  have  been  very  interesting  to  see  the  mediaeval 
idea  of  a  submarine. 

Eighty  years  later  we  find  the  famous  Friar  Bacon — long 
thought  to  be  a  wizard  by  his  countrymen,  but  now  recognised 
to  have  great  claims  to  be  considered  a  scientist — writing  about 
the  possibilities  opened  out  to  divers  by  the  employment  of 
air-tubes.  He  says  that  apparatus  could  be  made  to  enable 
people  to  walk  about  below  water,  and  that  "  such  instruments 
were  made  in  ancient  days,  and  also  in  our  own  times." 

It  is  well  known  that  the  terrible  Greek  fire,  so  much  em- 
ployed in  the  Crusades,  could  not  be  extinguished  by  water, 
and  it  was  some  composition  of  this  sort  that  Philip  Augustus 
employed  to  burn  down  an  under-water  stockade  at  the  Isle 
of  Aridelys  in  1203.  An  old  historian  narrates  the  circum- 
stances as  follows  :  2  "An  engineer  named  Gaubert,  a  native 
of  Mantes,  found  out  how  to  keep  alight,  even  under  water,  a 
kind  of  firework  contained  in  earthen  pots  without  any 
covering  ;  and  as  he  also  shared,  with  certain  divers,  the 
accomplishment  of  being  able  to  cross  a  fairly  wide  river 
swimming  under  water,  he  made  use  of  this  secret  to  set  on 
fire  the  big  stockade  which  defended  the  approach  to  the 
Island  of  Andelys,  which  the  army  of  Philip  Augustus  was 
attacking,  and  which  he  took  before  laying  siege  to  Chateau 
Gaillard.  For,  whilst  the  enemy  were  making  an  assault 
upon  the  bridge  which  this  prince  had  thrown  across  the 
Seine,  and  the  whole  attention  of  the  besieged  was  concentrated 
upon  this  spot,  Gaubert  swam  under  water  with  his  earthen 
pots  full  of  fireworks,  and,  having  reached  the  stockade,  he 
set  it  instantly  in  a  blaze.  As  the  boats  were  all  in  readiness 

1  According  to  a  writer  in  the  "  Scientific  American." 

2  Pere   Daniel,  after   Roger   de  Ho  vend  en  (as  quoted  by  Pesce 
in  "  La  Navigation  Sous-marine  "). 


8  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

to  transport  the  soldiers  to  the  island,  it  was  surprised  on  this 
side,  and  the  garrison  of  the  castle  was  obliged  to  surrender." 


DIVER'S  HELMET. 


There  is  no  doubt  whatever  that  about  this  time  the  under- 
water attack  of  ships  in  warfare  was  considered  a  perfectly 
practicable  means  of  damaging  an  enemy.  There  were  ten 


ANTIQUITY    AND    THE    MIDDLE    AGES  9 

rules  or  maxims  for  the  carrying  on  of  a  sea-fight,  which  were 
universally  accepted  by  the  sea-commanders  of  those  days, 
and  the  tenth  and  last  ran  :  "  Let  your  divers,  with  augers, 
pierce  the  ship's  sides  ;  in  order  to  hasten  her  destruction,  you 
must  hurl  great  stones  at  the  spot  where  the  water  is  coming 
in."  Valturius,  writing  in  1402.  recommended  the  same 
thing.  And  it  is  related  by  an  old  writer  that  a  Swedish  fleet 
in  particular  gained  a  signal  victory  over  a  squadron  com- 
manded by  Oddo,  a  Danish  pirate,  which  they  caught  at  anchor 
and  whose  sides  had  been  bored  through  by  their  divers  the 
night  before  the  battle  took  place. 

That  the  divers  employed  upon  such  hazardous  enterprises 
were  often  provided  with  helmets,  possibly  of  a  special  form 
to  protect  them  from  missiles  from  the  ship  they  were  en- 
deavouring to  sink,  is  so  very  probable  that  it  may  almost  be 
taken  for  granted. 

In  this  connection  the  following  item  from  an  old  roll,  giving 
a  list  of  "  Streamers,  Standards,  Armour  and  Artillery,  de- 
livered to  various  Masters  of  Ships  and  Barges  for  divers 
Voyages,  43-9  Edw.  III.,  1369-75,"  may  be  of  interest. 
Among  the  various  articles  of  armour  supplied  to  the 
Christopher  of  the  Tower?  one  of  the  King's  finest  ships,  we 
find,  "  Ten  Ketelhattes."  Sir  Harris  Nicholas,  the  voluminous 
historian  of  the  early  British  Navy,  specially  notes  this  item, 
but  does  not  attempt  to  explain  it.  May  we  hazard  a  guess 
that  these  "  Kettle  Hats "  were  neither  more  nor  less  than 
special  helmets  for  those  employed  in  submarine  attack.  In 
support  of  this  assumption,  it  may  be  noted  that  the  earliest 
diving-bells  were  generally  referred  to  as  ';  kettles."  May 
they  not  have  been  so  termed  from  having  been  an  amplification 
of  the  "  Ketelhattes  "  used  by  seamen  in  warfare  of  this  kind  ? 
Thus,  in  describing  an  experiment  which  took  place  at  Toledo 
in  1538,  an  old  writer2  says  :  "  Were  the  ignorant  vulgar  told 

1  "  Of  the  Tower  "  means  merely  that  it  was  a  King's  ship,  just 
as  we  write  H.M.S.  nowadays.  2  Taisnjer, 


10 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 


that  one  could  descend  to  the  bottom  of  the  Rhine,  in  the 
midst  of  the  water,  without  wetting  one's  clothes  or  any  part 
of  one's  body,  and  even  carry  a  lighted  candle  to  the  bottom 
of  the  water,  they  would  consider  it  altogether  ridiculous  and 

impossible.  This, 
however,  I  saw 
done,  at  Toledo,  in 
Spain,  in  the  year 
1538,  before  the 
Emperor  Charles  V. 
and  almost  10,000 
spectators.  The 
experiment  was 
made  by  two 
Greeks,  who,  taking 
a  very  large  kettle, 
suspended  by  ropes, 
with  the  face  down- 
wards, fixed  beams 
and  planks  in  the 
middle  of  its  con- 
cavity, upon  which 
they  placed  them- 
selves,  together 


DIVER'S  EQUIPMENT,  A.D.  1500. 

From  an  old  work  by  Ludwig  von  Eybe 

zum  Hartenstein. 

By  favour  of  the  "  Scientific  American." 


with  a  candle." 
At  what  time  ket- 
tles, as  we  generally 
know  them,  with 
spouts,  were  first  made,  cannot  be  said,  but  if  they  should 
have  been  sometimes  so  made  in  the  Middle  Ages,  it  seems 
possible  that  "  Ketelhattes  "  may  have  been  so  called  from 
having  been  made — like  them — with  a  spout  or  tube,  which 
would  enable  a  diver  to  keep  out  of  harm's  way  just  below  the 
surface  while  he  laboriously  bored  through  the  bottom  of  an 
enemy's  ship.  Against  this  theory  it  is  only  fair  to  state  tha.t 


ANTIQUITY    AND    THE    MIDDLE    AGES         11 


"  Kesselhaube,"  i.e.  "Kettle  cap,"  is  the  name  applied  in 
German  to  several  varieties  of  heavy  and  more  or  less  spherical 
helmets  in  use  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

A  modern  French  writer l  on  the  naval  affairs  of  this  period 
refers  to  under-water  attack  as  follows  :  "  The  warriors  of 
the  sea  were  always  distinguished  for  their  intrepidity  and 
boldness,  and  it  is  easy  to  believe  that  from  them  emanated 
the  svstem  of  submarine  warfare  that  in  the  fifteenth  century 


MEDIAEVAL    DIVERS. 

From  a  Fifteenth  Century  MS.  in  the  Ambras  Collection. 
From  "  Arms  and  Armour,"  by  Auguste  Demmin. 

gave  birth  to  a  series  of  extraordinary  inventions  in  nautical 
weapons." 

The  writer  probably  refers  to  the  quaint  diving-dresses  and 
apparatus  which  are  pictured  in  a  number  of  drawings  and 
engravings  that  appeared  in  the  next  century.  In  a  work 
written  by  a  German  knight 2  early  in  that  century,  there  is 
an  excellent  representation  of  a  diving-dress  all  complete  with 

1  Paul  de  la  Croix. 

2  Ludwig  von  Eybe  zum  Hartenstein. 


12 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 


helmet,  buoyed  air-tube,  ladder,  heavy  boots  and  hook-rope. 
In  early  editions  of  Vegetius,  published  in  1511  and  1532, 
there  are  quaint  engravings  of  diving-helmets — or  may  we 
say  "  Ketelhattes  "  ?  One  of  these  is  of  an  oval  shape,  the 
other  apparently  composed  of  two  rectangular  or  cylindrical 

portions,  one  above  the 
other,  though  it  seems 
just  possible  that  the 
latter  may  be  intended  to 
be  a  representation  of  the 
helmet  before  it  is  fastened 
and  strapped  into  position 
upon  the  wearer's  head. 
In  the  background — or 
rather  water — of  the  first 
picture  is  seen  a  man 
wearing  the  whole  cos- 
tume. The  method  of 
buoying  the  upper  end  of 
the  air-tube  with  a  large 
bladder  is  distinctly  shown. 
The  wearer  is  armed  with 
a  sword  and  battleaxe, 
and  has  been  clever 
enough  to  catch  a  fish  in 
his  hand.  Other  repre- 
sentations of  divers  are  to 
be  seen  in  the  Ambras  Collection,  where  they  are  coloured  black 
all  over,  the  idea  probably  being  to  represent  a  leather  covering. 
One  figure  has  a  most  peculiarly  shaped  head-piece,  while  the 
other  does  not  look  as  if  he  had  on  a  helmet  at  all,  but  is 
supplying  himself  with  air  from  a  gourd  or  bladder.  Other 
under-water  warriors  are  pictured  in  the  works  of  Vegetius, 
to  which  reference  has  already  been  made.  Of  these,  one  is 
apparently  in  puris  naturalibus,  and,  like  the  diver  men- 


DIVER   WITH    GOURD    OF   AIR. 

From  Vou'otius,  r.ritish  Museum,  534,   M  i1. 


ANTIQUITY    AND    THE    MIDDLE    AGES         13 


tioned  above,  is  breathing  from  a  gourd  or  bag  of  air.  There 
are  two  curly  somethings  attached  to  the  neck  of  the  bag, 
which  may  be  either  strings  used  to  tie  it  up  or  tubes  for  inhal- 
ing and  exhaling.  That  the  end  of  one  is  above  and  that  of 
the  other  below  water  may  perhaps  lend  a  certain  amount  of 
plausibility  to  the  latter 
idea.  The  other  warrior 
is  equipped  with  what 
looks  like  a  tilting  hel- 
met, a  shield,  and  a 
mace.  He  seems  to  be 
engaged  in  battle  with  a 
diminutive  merman  with 
two  tails  who  is  at  the 
surface  brandishing  a 
sword  and  buckler. 

Before  leaving  the  sub- 
ject of  divers  and  going 
on  to  submarine  boats 
proper,  it  may  be  in- 
teresting to  glance  at  an 
account  which  is  given 
by  Burchett  of  the  ex- 
ploit of  a  helmeted  diver 
at  the  siege  of  Bonifacio 
in  1420.  Having  related 
how  John  Baptiste 
Fregose  was  sent  with  a  squadron  of  seven  great  ships 
to  the  relief  of  that  city  when  it  was  beleaguered  by 
Alphonsus,  King  of  Aragon,  he  goes  on  to  say :  "  King 
Alphonsus,  to  prevent  the  city's  receiving  any  relief  by  sea, 
shut  up  the  entrance  of  the  harbour  with  a  floating  boom, 
consisting  of  great  planks  chained  together,  which  was  de- 
fended within  by  five  large  ships  ranged  in  a  line,  from  the 
two  outermost  whereof  were  stages  laid  across  to  the  shore, 


AN   UNDER-WATEB,   MAN-AT-AKMS. 
From  Vegetius,  British  Museum,  534,  M  2. 


14  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

as  there  were  also  from  one  ship  to  another,  and  on  each  side 
of  the  harbour's  mouth  were  raised  batteries  of  cannon.  On 
the  arrival  of  Fregose  off  Bonifacio,  the  garrison  sent  him  ad- 
vice, by  a  dexterous  swimmer,  of  the  state  of  their  affairs  ;  by 
whom  he  signified  his  directions  to  them  to  keep  a  good  look-out 
on  their  walls,  and  when  they  should  observe  he  was  attacking 
the  boom  and  ships,  to  sally  out  with  a  body  of  stout  fellows, 
each  with  an  axe  in  his  hand,  and  cut  the  cables  by  which  the 
ships  were  held.  The  first  ship  that  began  the  attack  was  one 
of  considerable  force,  commanded  by  James  Benicia,  which, 
going  afore  the  wind  with  a  brisk  gale,  forced  her  way  through 
the  boom,  and  opened  a  passage  to  the  enemy's  five  ships ; 
being  immediately  followed  by  others,  there  being  a  warm 
dispute,  which  was  maintained  for  a  long  time,  with  consider- 
able loss  on  both  sides.  At  length  a  skilful  diver,  armed  with 
a  helmet  on  his  head  and  a  scimitar  hung  to  his  side,  threw 
himself  into  the  sea,  and,  swimming  under  water  to  the 
enemy's  ships,  cut  their  cables  ;  which,  being  thus  loosed, 
soon  fell  foul  of  one  another  with  great  destruction."  This 
was,  surely,  no  inconsiderable  feat  for  a  man  to  perform, 
weighted  as  he  was  with  sword  and  helmet.  Perhaps  the  latter 
was  a  specially  constructed  "  kettle  hat,"  enabling  him  to 
breathe  while  swimming  just  below  the  surface.  If  not,  it 
was  probably  the  lightest  of  steel  caps  which  could  be 
dignified  by  the  name  of  helmet. 

Writing  in  1629,  Furtenbach,  in  his  "  History  of  Naval 
Architecture,"  states  that  the  Barbary  pirates  were  past 
masters  of  submarine  attack.  "  The  Corsairs,"  he  says,  "  in- 
deed, are  very  wily  in  attack  and  defence,  acquainted  with 
many  sorts  of  projectiles,  even  submarine  torpedoes,  which  a 
diver  will  attach  to  the  enemy's  keel."  It  would  be  very 
interesting  to  know  what  exactly  he  meant  by  the  word 
"  torpedoes  " — possibly  some  of  the  pots  of  Greek  fire  which 
we  have  seen  used  by  Philip  Augustus. 

By  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  we  begin  to  hear 


A    DIVER    CUTS    THE    ENEMY'S    CABLES    AT    BONIFACIO. 


ANTIQUITY   AND    THE    MIDDLE    AGES         15 

of  submarine  navigation  in  some  kind  of  boats  or  vessels. 
Such  a  contrivance  had,  as  we  have  already  mentioned,  been 
conceived  by  a  German  poet  as  far  back  as  the  twelfth  century, 
but  now  we  come  to  a  man  who  states  that  he  has  actually 
seen  a  submarine  vessel  with  his  own  eyes.  This  is  Olaus 
Magnus,  Bishop  of  Upsala.  In  his  account  of  Scandinavia, 
written  about  1555,  he  says  :  "  There  are  pirates  in  Grunt  land 
[?  Greenland]  who  make  use  of  skirls  and  vessels  constructed 


PIRATES    OF    "GRTJNTLAND." 
Facsimile  of  a  woodcut  in  "  Olaus  Magnus." 

of  leather,  for  the  purpose  of  going  wherever  they  wish,  either 
above  or  beloiv  water,  and  by  their  means  they  pierce  and 
make  great  holes  in  passing  merchant  vessels.  In  the  year 
1505  I  saw  two  of  these  leathern  boats  or  skiffs  in  the  Cathedral 
Church  of  Asloe,  in  the  western  porch.  They  were  dedicated 
to  St.  Haluard,  and  placed  there  on  exhibition,  and  are  said 
to  have  been  taken  by  King  Hakon  while  passing  with  his 
warships  along  the  coast  of  Gruntland,  when  the  pirates  by 
their  wickedness  tried  to  sink  his  vessels." 


16  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

Unless  the  boats  that  were  seen  by  the  bishop  were  in  reality 
nothing  more  than  Esquimaux  kyaks,  which  are  canoes  covered 
with  skins,  all  but  a  small  opening  which  fits  closely  round  the 
occupant's  waist,  a  supposition  that  it  is  extremely  probable 
is  a  correct  one — this  statement  is  very  interesting.  He  says, 
further,  that  augers  were  employed  to  bore  holes  in  the  ships' 
bottoms,  but,  as  we  have  already  noted,  this  was  a  recognised 
device  in  mediaeval  naval  warfare.  But  some  kind  of  sub- 
marine vessel  may  have  been  known  at  this  period,  for  in  the 
account  which  Sir  Francis  Bacon  gives  of  experiments  with  a 
diving  "  kettle,"  he  concludes  by  saying  :  "  We  have  heard  it 
said  that  they  have  invented  another  machine,  like  a  little  ship, 
by  the  aid  of  which  men  can  travel  below  water  for  a  consider- 
able distance."  Possibly  this,  or  a  similar  affair,  was  the  so- 
called  submarine  boat  by  the  aid  of  which  the  Venetians,  in 
1559,  contrived  to  raise  a  galleon  which  had  been  sunk  in  the 
Roads  of  Malamocco. 

NOTE. — Valturius  ("  De  Re  Militari  "),  circ.  1472,  gives  a  picture  of 
a  cigar-shaped  boat  which  he  says  is  for  crossing  rivers  and  can  be 
propelled  at  great  speed.  Pesce,  in  his  "  Navigation  Sous-marine," 
claims  these  as  ancestors  of  our  modern  submarines,  but  this  seems 
hardly  warranted,  as  the  cranks  for  propelling  them  are  drawn 
outside  the  queer-looking  affairs. 


CHAPTER    II 
1578-1634 


17 


CHAPTER    II 
1578-1634 

Bourne's  and  Drebbel's  Submarines — Submarines,  "  Water-mines,4' 
etc.,  for  Buckingham's  Expedition  to  the  Isle  of  Rhe — Prince 
Rupert's  attempt  to  blow  up  the  Leopard  in  the  Tagus — 
The  Submarine  proposed  by  Fathers  Mersenne  and  Fournier 
in  1634. 

BEFORE  we  go  on  to  describe  the  first  submarines  of  which 
we  have  any  definite  account,  it  is  worth  while  to  notice  the 
first  appearance  of  the  "  Colombiad,"  or  under- water  gun — 
though  it  is  only  on  paper.  This  novel  method  of  under- 
water attack  was  suggested  by  Sir  William  Monson,  the  famous 
Elizabethan  admiral,  in  his  well-known  "  Naval  Tracts." 

"  The  best  and  greatest  ships  in  the  world,"  says  he,  "  may 
be  sunk  by  a  bark  of  20  tons  by  this  stratagem — viz.  to  place 
a  cannon  in  the  hold  of  a  bark  with  her  mouth  to  the  side  of 
the  ship  ;  the  bark  shall  board  and  then  to  give  fire  to  the 
cannon  that  is  stowed  under  water,  and  they  shall  both 
instantly  sink  ;  the  man  that  shall  execute  this  stratagem 
may  escape  in  a  small  boat  hauled  the  other  side  of  the  bark." 
It  is,  as  we  shall  see,  the  same  idea  which  Mersenne,  and,  later 
on,  Fulton,  propounded  in  an  improved  form. 

To  an  Englishman,  William  Bourne,  who  had  served  as  a 
gunner  under  Sir  WillianTMonson,  belongs  the  credit  of  having 
worked  out  and  published  the  first  known  detailed  description 
of  a  submarine  boat.  It  is  not  probable  that  his  design  was 
ever  carried  out,  but  it  is  very  possible  that  Van  Drebbel  got 
the  idea  of  his  own  under- water  boat  from  Bourne's  proposals. 

19 


THE    STORY   OF    THE    SUBMARINE 


He  made  them  in  a  little  book  that  he  published  in  1578, 
entitled  "  INUENTIONS  OR  DEUISES — Very  necessary  for  all 
Generalles  and  Captaines,  or  Leaders  of  Men  as  wel  by  sea  as 


FIGVRA  DEL      ISTRVWEXTO    nODO  PARA  SACAR    PECAS  DI 
-ABTJLLERJA     DEL     AGVA 


DIVER   SALVING   A   GUN. 
Prom  "  Diego  Ufano,"  1613. 


by  land."     His  explanation  of  his  design  is  rather  long,  but 
still  worth  transcribing  in  full. 

"  It  is  possible,"  says  this  old  seaman,  "  to  make  a  shippe 


SIXTEENTH    AND    SEVENTEENTH    CENTURIES  (21 

or  boate  that  may  goe  vncler  the  water  vnto  the  bottome,  and 
so  to  come  vp  againe  at  your  pleasure.  Any  magnitude  of 
body  that  is  in  the  water,  if  that  the  quantity  in  biggnesse, 
having  alwaies  but  one  weight,  may  be  made  bigger  or  lesser, 
then  it  shall  swimme  when  you  would,  and  sinke  when  you 
list :  and  for  to  make  anything  doe  so,  then  the  iointes  or 
places  that  doo  make  the  thing  bigger  or  lesser,  must  bee  of 
leather  ;  and  in  the  inside  to  have  skrewes  to  winde  it  in  and 


THE  AUTHOR'S  IDEA  OF  THE  PROBABLE  APPEARANCE  OF  WILLIAM 
BOURNE'S  PROPOSED  SUBMARINE,   1578. 

also  out  againe  :  and  for  to  have  it  sinke,  they  must  winde 
it  in  to  make  the  thing  lesse,  and  then  it  sinketh  vnto  the 
bottome  :  and  to  have  it  swimme,  then  to  winde  the  sides  out 
againe,  to  make  the  thing  bigger,  and  it  will  swimme  according 
vnto  the  body  of  the  thing  in  the  water. 

"  And  to  make  a  small  shippe  or  barke,  or  boate,  do  this, 
the  barke  being  made  of  purpose,  let  there  be  good  store  of 
balast  in  the  bottome  of  hir,  and  oner  the  balast,  as  lowe  as 
ni.-iv  be,  let  there  be  a  close  orloppe,1  such  a  one  as  no  water 

*  From  the  Swedish  "  ofverlopp,  "  a  deck. 


22  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

may  come  into  it,  and  then  in  like  manner,  at  a  sufficient 
height,  to  have  another  close  orloppe,  that  no  water  may  come 
through  it ;  and  that  being  done,  then  bore  both  sides  full 
of  holes  between  the  two  close  orloppes  ;  and  that  being  done, 
then  make  a  thing  like  the  side  of  the  barke  or  shippe,  that 
may  go  vnto  the  side  of  the  shippe,  the  one  for  the  one  side 
and  the  other  for  the  other  side,  and  that  must  be  made  so 
close  and  tight,  that  no  water  may  come  through  it  :  and 
that  done,  then  take  leather,  such  a  quantitie  as  is  sufficient 
for  to  serve  your  purpose,  and  that  leather  must  bee  nailed 
close,  with  such  prousion  that  no  water  may  soake  through 
it,  and  to  be  of  that  largenesse,  that  the  thing  may  goe  close  vnto 
the  barke  or  shippe  side  when  you  would  and  come  in  againe, 
to  let  sufficient  water  in,  that  it  shall  not  be  able  to  swimme. 
And  now,  this  being  done  you  must  make  prouision  of  skrewes, 
or  other  engines,  to  winde  the  two  things  on  the  inside  of 
the  barke  or  shippe,  that  you  may  winde  them  in  or  out 
at  your  pleasure  :  and  that  done,  then  for  the  hatch  or  skotel, 
that  you  must  goe  in  or  out,  you  must  have  leather  round 
about  it,  that  you  may  bring  that  together  as  a  purse  mouth, 
and  so  with  a  small  skrewe,  you  may  wind  it  so  close  together, 
that  being  in  the  bottome  of  the  water,  there  shal  no  water 
come  in  :  and  that  being  done,  then  you  must  have  one 
mast,  that  must  bee  of  sufficient  biggnesse,  that  it  must  have 
hole  bored  through  the  one  end  vnto  the  other,  as  a  pompe 
hath  :  and  that  done,  then  when  that  you  list  to  sinke,  then 
you  must  sound  the  deepness  of  the  water,  and  foresee  that 
the  water  will  not  rise  higher  than  the  top  of  the  mast,  for 
the  hole  that  goeth  through  the  mast  must  give  you  ayre, 
as  men  cannot  live  without  it  :  And  when  you  would  sinke, 
then  with  your  skrewes  winde  the  two  sides  inwardes,  and 
water  will  come  into  the  holes,  and  so  the  ship  or  barke  will 
sink  vnto  the  bottome,  and  there  it  may  rest  at  your  pleasure  : 
and  when  you  would  have  it  swimme,  then  with  the  skrewes 
winde  out  the  things  on  both  the  sides,  and  that  will  thrust 


SIXTEENTH    AND    SEVENTEENTH    CENTURIES  23 


the  water  out  againe  at  the  holes,  and  so  it  will  rise  and  come 
vp  above  the  water  and  swimme  as  it  did  before." 

This  description  of  his  "  18th  Deuise,"  as  Bourne  calls  it, 
is  by  no  means  succinct,  but  for  all  that,  when  we  realise 
that  "  orloppe  "  is  merely  the  old  English  word  for  "  deck," 
it  is  not  difficult  to 
understand.  It  is  in- 
teresting to  note  that 
the  plan  of  increasing 
and  decreasing  the 
volume  of  the  boat  in 
the  water  in  order  to 
make  her  rise  or  sink 
was  that  adopted  in  the 
Campbell-Ash  boat  of 
1885,  the  difference 
being  that  the  latter 
sank  at  her  normal 
form  and  only  rose  by  ATHWARTSHIPS  SECTION  TO  SHOW  THE 
pushing  out  a  row  of  AUTHOR'S  CONCEPTION  OF  THE 

big  cylinders  on  either 

A,  A.    Upper  "  Close  Orloppe." 

Before  the   sixteenth   B,  B.  Lower  ••  close  orloppe." 
century      was     out,    a  °'a  ^ast;r 

D.        Hollow  Mast  for  Air  Supply. 

Scotsman,       Napier       of    E,  E.    "  A  thing  like  the  side  of  the  Barke,"  with 
•»«•       r  •    ,  i  leather     attached.      Shown    on     the    right 

Merchiston,    announced  screwed  close  againat  the  side  of  the  bjat 

that     he     had    invented  to     exclude    the    water,    and    on   the    left 

-,  A  J  withdrawn  to  admit  water. 

a  submarine.  Accord- 
ing to  his  own  account  he  had  made  four  "  Secret  Inven- 
tions " — "  besides  devices  of  sailing  under  water  with  divers 
other  devices  and  stratagems  for  burning  of  the  enemies, 
by  the  Grace  of  God,  and  work  of  expert  craftsmen,  I  hope 
to  perform."  Magnus  Pegelius  seems  actually  to  have 
constructed  something  of  the  sort  in  1605,  but  details  are 
not  procurable.  In  a  Venetian  work  on  Fortification  published 


PRINCIPLE  OF  BOURNE'S    PROPOSED 
SUBMARINE. 


24  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

in  1609  1  there  is  a  description  of  an  iron-bound  box  with 
windows  which  seems  to  have  been  intended  for  use  under 
water  as  a  diving  bell  or  boat,  while  in  1617  Kessler  published 
an  account  of  his  design  for  "  Water- Armour  "  for  divers. 


PAPIN'S  SUBMARINE,  1692. 
Said  (probably  erroneously)  to  have  been  a  copy  of  Drebbel's  boat. 

From  Gentleman's  Magazine,  December  1747. 

A,  A.  The  "  boat  "  itself. 

B,  B.  A  "  Hessian  rotary  sucker,  drawing  in  air  "  through  pipe  C,  0. 

D,  D.  The  hatchway. 

E,  E.  Copper  tube,  6  ft.  by  1|  ft.,  to  hold  a  man,  who  endeavours  to  injure  an  enemy's 
ship  by  passing  his  arms  out  of  the  hole  at  G.    The  water  is  excluded  from  the  tube 
(which  is  closed  behind  the  man)  by  the  pressure  of  air  forced  into  it  by  the  pump  F,  F. 

A,  h.  Valve  for  letting  out  air. 

O,  O.  A  species  of  barometer  to  register  the  depth  of  descent. 

P,  P.  Supporting  bracket  for  the  copper  cylinder  E,  E. 

N.B. — The  figure  of  the  man  is  added  by  the  author  ("who  assumes  there  is  a  hole  on 
either  side  at  G)  to  show  the  probable  mode  of  attacking  the  bottom  of  an  enemy's  ship 
with  an  auger. 

This  brings  us  to  a  really  famous  inventor,  Cornelius  Van 
JDrebbel  of  Alkmajir,  who  invented  a  considerable  number 
of  different  kinds  of  apparatus  of  a  scientific  nature,  and 

1  By  Buonaruto  Lorini.     Possibly  this  may  havo  been  the  con 
trivance  referred  to  at  the  end  of  Chapter  I. 


SIXTEENTH    AND    SEVENTEENTH    CENTURIES  25 

among  them  a  submarine  boat  which  it  seems  quite  certain 
was  navigated  below  water  in  the  river  Thames.  According 
to  a  Dutch  work  of  1645,1  "  he  built  a  ship  which  one  could 
row  and  navigate  under  water  from  Westminster  to  Greenwich, 
the  distance  of  two  Dutch  miles  ;  even  five  or  six  miles,  or 
as  far  as  one  pleased.  In  this  boat  a  person  could  see  under 
the  surface  of  the  water  and  without  candle-light,  as  much 
as  he  needed  to  read  in  the  Bible  or  any  other  book."  It 
is  a  great  pity  that  no  exact  details  or  plans  of  this  interesting 
vessel  have  come  down  to  us.  The  Duke  of  Hesse,  many 
years  later,  caused  a  model  of  Van  Drebbel's  boat  to  be  con- 
structed by  the  celebrated  Papin,  but  it  is,  from  the  drawings 
that  have  been  published  of  it,  an  obviously  incorrect  one, 
as  it  would  not  be  possible  to  move  it  about  under  water, 
as  may  be  seen  by  its  shape  and  the  absence  of  propelling 
mechanism,  whereas  contemporary  accounts  of  DrebbePs  sub- 
marine say  that  she  carried  twelve  rowers  besides  passengers. 
It  is  said  that  she  made  a  journey  of  several  hours  in  a  sub- 
merged position  at  a  depth  of  twelve  to  fifteen  feet,  and 
tradition  adds  that  King  James  L,  who  was  the  personification 
of  caution,  had  such  confidence  in  the  Dutchman's  invention 
that  he  actually  ventured  his  Royal  Person  in  one  of  DrebbePs 
submarine  trips.  As  he  was  a  close  friend  and  patron  of  the 
ingenious  inventor,  there  is  a  certain  amount  of  plausibility 
about  this  story. 

Possibly  the  apparatus  that  Papin  made  was  a  copy 
of  some  other  invention  of  DrebbePs  more  in  the  nature  of 
a  diving-bell.  The  celebrated  Boyle2  refers  to  this  early 
submarine  as  follows  : — "  A  Conceit  of  that  deservedly 
Famous  Mechanician  and  Chymist,  Cornelius  Drebbel,  who 
among  other  strange  things  that  he  performed,  is  affirmed 
(by  more  than  a  few  credible  persons)  to  have  contrived  for 

1  "Chronicle  of  Alkmaar." — C.  VAN  DEB  WONDB  (1645). 

2  k'  Xew  Experiments  Physico-mechanical   touching  the   Spring 
of  the  Air  and  its  Effects."— HONBLE.  ROBERT  BOYLE  (1662). 


26  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

the  late  learned  King  James,  a  vessel  to  go  under  water  ; 
of  which  trial  was  made  in  the  Thames  with  admirable  success, 
the  vessel  carrying  twelve  Rowers  besides  Passengers  ;  one 
of  which  is  yet  alive,  and  related  to  an  excellent  Mathematician 
that  informed  me  of  it.  ...  Drebbel  conceived,  that  'tis  not 
the  whole  body  of  the  air  but  a  certain  Quintessence  (as 
Chymists  speake)  or  spirituous  part  of  it  that  makes  it  fit 
for  respiration,  which  being  spent,  the  grosser  body,  or  carcase 
(if  I  may  so  call  it)  of  the  Air,  is  unable  to  cherish  the  vital 
flame  residing  in  the  heart :  so  that  (for  ought  I  could  gather) 
besides  the  Mechanicall  contrivance  of  his  vessel  he  had  a 
Chymicall  liquor,  which  he  accounted  the  chief  secret  of 
his  Submarine  Navigation.'  For  when  from  time  to  time 
he  perceived  that  the  finer  and  purer  part  of  the  Air  was 
consumed  or  over-clogged  by  the  respiration  and  steames 
of  those  that  went  in  his  ship,  he  would,  by  unstopping  a 
vessel  full  of  the  liquor,  speedily  restore  to  the  troubled  air 
such  a  proportion  of  vital  parts  as  would  make  it  again  for 
a  good  while  fit  for  Respiration." 

Ben  Jonson  in  his  play,  or  rather  comedy,  "  The  Staple  of 
News,"  has  a  slight  reference  to  Drebbel's  boat,  which  he 
terms  an  "  invisible  eel  "  : 

THOMAS.     They    write  here  one  Cornelius'  son 
Hath  made  the  Hollanders  an  invisible  eel 
To  swim  the  Haven  at  Dunkirk  and  sink  all 
The  shipping  there. 

PENNYBOY,  JUNIOR.     But  how  is't  done  ? 

GRABAL.     I'll  ehew  you,  sir, 
It  is  an  automata,  runs  under  water 
With  a  snug  nose,  and  has  a  nimble  tail 
Made  like  an  auger  with  which  tail  she  wriggles 
Betwixt  the  costs  of  a  ship  and  sinks  it  straight. 

Is  it  possible  that  the  "  auger  "  referred  to  was  some  kind 
of  a  screw  propeller  ?  From  its  position  at  the  stern  one 
might  almost  imagine  it  possible,  though  of  course,  as  we 


SIXTEENTH    AND    SEVENTEENTH    CENTURIES   27 

have  seen,  the  auger  was  a  recognised  weapon  of  under-water 
attack. 

Drebbel  had  probably  something  to  do  with  the  apparatus 
referred  to  in  the  following  warrants,  which  were  orders  to 
provide  special  equipment  for  Buckingham's  ill-managed 
attempts  on  the  Isle  of  Rhe  and  the  relief  of  La  Rochelle. 
The  first,  dated  January  26,  1626,  is  from  "  His  Majestic  to  the 
Master  of  the  Ordnaunce,  thereby  signifying  His  Highnesses 
pleasure  and  order  given  to  Sir  William  Heydon  Lieut:  of 
the  Ordinance,  for  the  making  of  dyvers  water  mines,  water 
petards,  fforged  cases  to  be  shot  with  fireworks,  and  boates 
to  goe  under  water"  The  second,  issued  on  June  29  in  the 
same  year,  is  a  warrant  from  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  for 
the  delivery  of  "  360  fiorged  iron  cases  with  fireworkes, 
50  water  mynes,  290  water  petards,  and  two  boats  to  conduct 
them  under  water"  for  H.M.  special  service  to  goe  with  the 
fleete."  Here  we  have  the  whole  paraphernalia  of  submarine 
warfare — submarine  boats,  mines,  and  torpedoes, — for  we  may 
consider  that  the  "  water  petard  "  was  a  kind  of  torpedo  for 
attaching  to  the  enemy's  ships  or  stockades,  since  the  ordinary 
"  petard "  was  a  strong  bell-shaped  casting  of  iron  packed 
with  explosive  which  was  intended  especially  for  blowing 
in  gates  and  doors  of  the  massive  nature  used  in  fortifications  ; 
to  which  it  was  placed  in  close  contact  before  explosion. 
What  a  pity  it  is  that  no  detailed  account  of  these  contrivances 
and  their  performances  in  action  has  been  preserved !  Derpeuch,  _,' 
in  his  "  Navigation  Sous-marine,"  states  that  Drebbel  was 
their  inventor  and  that  he  accompanied  Buckingham  on 
his  ill-fated  expedition,  and  also  that  his  "  engines  "  were 
launched  against.the  French  fleet  but  without  success.  But 
he  does  not  give  any  further  details  or  any  authority  for  his 
statement.  It  is  very  probable,  in  any  case,  that  he  is  absolutely 
correct,  for  we  should  surely  have  had  some  account  of  any 
success  that  Buckingham's  unfortunate  operations  had  to 
show  to  their  credit. 


28  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

Despite  their  ill-success,  however,  Drebbel  contrived  to 
keep  himself  in  favour  with  the  Admiralty,  for  in  1628  we 
discover  him  as  commanding  officer  of  a  fireship  at  £150  a 
month — very  high  pay,  especially  when  we  consider  the  value 
of  money  at  that  date.  His  son-in-law,  Dr.  Kuffler,  had 
charge  of  another  fireship,  but  he  only  got  a  pound  a  day. 
Neither  were  satisfied.  They  were  "  on  the  make,"  and 
demanded  more — which,  by  the  way,  they  didn't  get. 

Cornelius  van  Drebbel  died  in  1634,  but  Dr.  Kuffler  was 
still  to  the  fore  after  the  Restoration.  Pepys  in  his  "  Diary  " 
relates  that  on  March  14,  1662 — "  In  the  afternoon  came  the 
German  Doctor  Kuffler  to  discourse  with  us  about  his  engine 
to  blow  up  ships.  We  doubted  not  the  matter  of  fact,  it 
being  tried  in  Cromwell's  time,  but  the  safety  of  carrying  them 
in  ships  ;  but  he  do  tell]  us,  that  when  he  comes  to  tell  the 
King  his  secret  (for  none  but  Kings  successively  and  their 
heirs  must  know  it),  it  will  appear  to  be  of  no  danger  at  all. 
We  concluded  nothing,  but  shall  converse  with  the  Duke  of 
York  about  it."  What  the  Duke  said  is  not  related,  but 
probably  he  was  averse  to  the  idea,  since  late  in  the  following 
year  Pepys  still  refers  to  the  matter  as  a  project  only.  The 
entry  in  the  "  Diary"  runs  :  "  At  noon  to  the  coffee-house, 
where,  with  Dr.  Allen,  some  good  discourse  about  physick 
and  chymistry.  And,  among  other  things,  I  telling  him 
what  Dribble,  the  German  doctor,  do  offer  of  an  instrument 
to  sink  ships."  Pepys  must  be  confounding  Drebbel,  who 
had  been  dead  nearly  thirty  years,  with  his  son-in-law  Dr. 
Kuffler,  who,  so  to  speak,  had  inherited  the  business. 

Although  it  is  evident  that  under-water  attack  by  means 
of  explosives  had  been  under  consideration  for  a  number  of 
years,  one  only  instance  of  their  employment  can  be  quoted, 
and  in  this  case  the  attack  was  in  reality  more  like  the  anarchist 
attempts  of  the  present  day.  This  was  when  Prince  Rupert 
tried  to  blow  up  or  at  any  rate  damage  the  Leopard,  Blake's 
flagship,  as  she  lay  in  the  Tagus  in  1650,  He  concealed  an 


SIXTEENTH   AND   SEVENTEENTH   CENTURIES  29 

infernal  machine  in  what  looked  like  a  barrel  of  oil,  which 
he  placed  in  a  shore  boat  in  charge  of  a  seaman  and  two 
negroes,  all  of  whom  were  disguised  in  Portuguese  costume. 
They  pulled  alongside  the  Leopard,  probably  with  the  intention 
of  passing  the  barrel  in  at  one  of  the  lower-deck  ports, — for 
on  finding  them  closed,  the  sailor  made  an  exclamation  in 
English.  This  attracted  the  attention  of  the  watch  on  board, 
who  hitherto  had  had  no  suspicion  of  what  looked  much  like 
other  shore  boats  that  were  in  the  habit  of  hanging  round  the 
fleet.  The  boat  and  her  occupants  were  seized,  when  it  was 
discovered  that  a  -string  passed  through  the  bunghole  of  the 
barrel  to  the  trigger  of  a  pistol  that  was  arranged  to  fire  the 
infernal  machine.  Doubtless  the  intention  had  been,  after 
passing  in  the  barrel,  to  row  away  to  the  extreme  length  of 
the  string  and  then  pull  the  trigger.  Perhaps  the  most 
extraordinary  point  about  the  story  is  that  Blake  allowed 
the  seaman  who  had  been  in  charge  of  this  detestable  con- 
trivance to  go  scot  free. 

In  the  same  year  that  Drebbel  died,  the  subject  of  submarine 
navigation  was  taken  up  by  two  priests,  Fathers  Mersenne 
and  Fournier,  of  the  Order  of  the  Minimes.  They  wrote  a 
treatise  upon  the  subject  and  suggested  a  design  for  a  submarine 
war-vessel,  which,  if  it  could  have  been  carried  out,  might 
have  proved  a  formidable  engine  of  attack. 

They  went  into  the  matter  with  great  attention  to  detail — 
among  other  things  urged  that  such  a  vessel  should  be  built 
of  metal  and  be  fish-shaped  with  pointed  ends,  so  she  could 
move  ahead  or  astern  equally  well.  Here  we  have  the  idea 
that  is  carried  out  in  the  lines  upon  which — with  variations — 
the  whole  almost  of  our  modern  submarines  are  constructed. 
Like  Simon  Lake's  successful  Argonauts  and  Protectors* 
the  proposed  boats  were  to  be  equipped  with  _whfiels— for 
movement  upon  the  sea-floor,  but  they  had  to  fall  back 
upon  oars  as  a  means  of  propulsion.  They  were  to  be  fitted 
1  Vide  Chapters  XIV.  and  XVII. 


30  THE   STORY   OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

with  air-pumps  and  ventilators,  and  provided  with  phos- 
phorescent apparatus  to  enable  the  crew  to  see  what  they 
were  about  when  below  water.  In  order  to  be  in  a  position 
to  blow  a  hole  through  the  bottom  of  an  enemy's  ship  they 
were  to  carry  a  battery  of  big  guns  on  either  side,  which— 
like  Fulton's  "  Colombiads  "  *• — could  be  fired  through  ports 
fitted  with  special  valves  or  stoppers  to  prevent  the  ingress 
of  water  when  the  cannon  recoiled  after  discharge.  Means 
of  entering  and  leaving  the  boat  when  submerged  were  also 
provided  for  in  the  shape  of  leather  sacks,  the  idea  being 
that,  the  outer  end  being  fastened,  a  man  could  get  inside 
and,  after  the  bag  had  been  tightly  closed  behind  him,  could 
undo  the  exterior  fastening  and  slip  out  into  the  water — 
rather  a  trying  operation  for  the  man,  and  fraught  with 
considerable  danger  to  the  other  occupants  of  the  boat. 

i  Vide  Chapter  V. 


CHAPTER  III 
1640-1774 


31 


CHAPTER  III 
1640-1774 

Bishop  Wilkins'  fantastic  ideas,  1648 — De  Son's  Rotterdam  Ship, 
1653 — Borelli  and  Symons'  Submarines — Ciminius  and  Doligny's 
projects — Dionois'  Submarine — Day's  Fatal  Experiment  in 
Plymouth  Sound. 

IN  1640  the  King  of  France  granted  a  patent  for  some  kind  of 
submarine  vessel  to  John  Barrie,  together  with  the  monopoly 
of  using  it  for  fishing  and  salvage  purposes  for  twelve  years. 
Most  writers  consider  this  to  have  been  more  of  a  diving- 
bell  than  a  boat,  but  the  inventor  calls  his  vessel  a  "  patache," 
the  nearest  English  translation  being  the  word  "  packet." 
This  sounds  rather  as  if  it  were  intended  to  be  a  more  mobile 
vessel  than  a  mere  diving  apparatus.  He  is  said  to  have 
carried  out  some  salvage  operations  at  Dieppe  with  it  which 
were  attended  with  a  good  deal  of  success.  Evidently  Barrie' s 
boat,  whatever  it  may  have  been,  was  a  real  submarine  vessel. 
Turning  from  the  real  to  the  ideal,  we  come  to  the  extra- 
ordinary ideas  as  to  submarine  navigation  and  existence 
put  forward  by  Bishop  Wilkins  in  his  "  Mathematical  Magick," 
published  in  1648.  He  devotes  a  whole  chapter  to  "  The 
possibility  of  Framing  an  Ark  for  Submarine  Navigation." 
He  refers  to  Mersenne's  book  and  admits  that  such  a  thing 
is  feasible,  "  because  it  hath  been  already  experienced  here  in 
England  by  Cornelius  Drebbel."  He  discusses  the  difficulties 
attendant  on  under- water  navigation,  and  among  them  that 
of  getting  in  and  out  of  a  submarine  when  below  without  the 

33  3 


34  THE   STORY   OF   THE    SUBMARINE 

admission  of  water.     He  proposes  to  arrange  for  this  in  just 
the  same  way  as  did  Mersenne  and  Fournier — by  means  of 
leather  bags,  opened  and  closed  at  each  end  in  turn.     As  for 
propulsion,  he  advocates  the  use  of  oars  with  contracting 
and  expanding  blades  "  like  the  fins  of  a  fish."     Later  on  he 
expatiates  on  the  manifold  uses  of  such  a  boat,  and  among 
these  he  mentions  that  it  is  "  Private,  a  Man  may  thus  go  to 
any  Coast  of  the  World  invisibly  without  being  discovered 
or  prevented  in  his  journey  "  :   that,  "  'Tis  safe  from  the  Un- 
certainty of  Tides  and  the  Violence  of  Tempests,  which  do 
never  move  the  Sea  above  Five  or  Six  paces  deep,"  and  that 
"  It  may  be  of  very  great  advantage  against  a  Navy  of  Enemies, 
who  by  this  means  may  be  undermined  in  the  water  and  blown 
up."     Again  he  suggests  that  "  It  may  be  of  special  use  for 
the  Relief  of  any  place  that  is  beseiged  by  Water  to  convey 
to  them  Invisible  Supplies  ;   and  so  likewise  for  the  Surprizal 
of  any  Place  that  is  accessible  by  Water."     But  he  waxes 
most  enthusiastic  over  the  great  advantages  that  his  proposed 
boat  would  confer  upon  Submarine  experimenters  and  ex- 
plorers, prognosticates  great  sport  in  shooting  big  fish  with 
muskets,  and  thinks  that  untold  wealth  might  be  realised  by 
the  discovery  of  submarine  treasures — pearls,  corals,  and  the 
cargoes  and  specie  on  board  wrecked  vessels.     In  the  end  his 
imagination  runs  away  with  him  altogether  and  he  conjectures 
that  with  the  universal  adoption  of  submarine  navigation, 
some  people  would  live  under  water  altogether  and  bring  up 
their  children  as  mermans.     "  All  kinds  of  Arts  and  Manufac- 
tures," he  writes,   "  may  be  exercised  in  this  Vessel.     The 
Observations  made  by  it  might  be  written  and  (if  need  be) 
Printed  here  likewise.     Several  Colonies  may  here  inhabit, 
having  their  Children  born,  and  bred  up,  without  the  know- 
ledge of  land,  who  could  not  chuse  but  be  amazed  with  Strange 
Conceits  upon  the  Discovery  of  this  Upper  World." 

Six  years  after  the  publication  of   this  rhapsody  on  sub- 
marine   navigation,  a  boat  was  built  at    Rotterdam  which 


SEVENTEENTH  AND  EIGHTEENTH  CENTUKIES  35 

is  generally  assumed  to  have  been  intended  for  submarine 
purposes,  though  it  is  possible  that  it  may  merely  have  been 
intended  to  navigate  in  an  "  awash  "  position.  Its  designer 
was  a  Frenchman  of  the  name  of  De  Son.  His  boat  attracted 
considerable  attention  at  the  time,  and  is  supposed  to  be  the 
one  referred  to  by  Foulis  in  his  "  Plots  of  our  Pretended 
Saints,"  when  he  speaks  of  "  the  Rotterdam  ship  that  would 
kill  the  English  under  water."  There  is  a  drawing  to  be  seen 
of  it  in  the  National  Library  at  Paris,  on  which  appears  the 
following  description  of  the  vessel : 

"  The  true  and  perfect  forme  of  the  Strange  Ship  built  at 
Rotterdam  A'  1653.  The  inuentor  of  it  doeth  undertake  in  one 
day  to  destroy  a  honderd  Ships :  can  goe  from  Rotterdam  to 
London  and  back  againe  in  one  day,  and  in  6  Weekes  to  goe 
to  the  East  Indiens,  and  to  run  as  Swift  as  a  bird  can  flye  : 
no  fire,  nor  Storme,  or  Bullets,  can  hinder  her,  unlesse  it 
please  God.  Although  the  Ships  meane  to  bee  safe  in  their 
hauens.  It  is  in  vaine,  for  shee  shall  come  to  them  in  any 
place.  It  is  impossible  for  her  to  bee  taken,  unlesse  by 
treacherie,  and  then  can  not  bee  governed  by  any  but  himselfe. 
The  length  is  72,  the  height  12  foote,  the  breadth  8  foote." 

Speaking  generally,  the  shape  of  this  remarkable  vessel 
was  that  of  a  nearly  cubical  box  prolonged,  fore  and  aft,  by  long 
rectangular  pyramids.  She  was  lengthened  longitudinally 
by  a  massive  girdle  of  timber  faced  with  iron,  and  was  pro- 
pelled by  a  species  of  paddle-wheel  with  feathering  blades  that 
worked  in  a  well  in  the  centre  of  the  vessel.  She  was  the  same 
shape  both  at  bow  and  stern,  her  rudders  being  arranged 
nearly  amidships  at  the  corners  of  the  cubical  portion  of  her 
hull.  It  is  noticeable  that  in  the  description  which  accom- 
panies the  drawing  of  the  vessel,  which  has  been  quoted 
above,  no  claim  is  made  as  to  her  capabilities  for  under-water 
work ;  and  when  we  consider  her  form  and  construction  and 
the  high  speed  she  is  pretended  to  have,  there  is  good  reason 
to  assume  that  the  role  really  intended  for  her  was  that  of  a 


36  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

ram  running  in  an  awash  position  like  our  own  Polyphemus 
and  the  American  Kathadin.1 

The  Marquis  of  Worcester,  who  was  a  scientific  dabbler, 
published  a  work  in  1655  which  he  called  "  Scantlings  of 
Inventions."  There  were  in  this  book  about  a  hundred 
more  or  less  impossible  ideas  for  novel  apparatus  of  one  kind 
and  another  which  he  declares  were  "  by  me  already  practised," 
a  statement  which  hardly  bears  the  stamp  of  veracity.  Many 
of  these  were  contrivances  for  naval  and  military  purposes, 
and  among  these  there  is  one  that  is  in  the  nature  of  a  torpedo, 
though,  strictly  speaking/it  ought  rather  to  be  classed  as  an 
infernal  machine  of  the  kind  favoured  by  Fenians  and  An- 
archists. He  calls  it  "  A  Ship -destroying  Engine,"  which, 
he  says,  "  is  portable  in  one's  pocket,  which  may  be  carried 
and  fastened  to  the  inside  of  the  greatest  ship  tamquam  aliud 
agens.  And  at  an  appointed  minute,  though  a  week  after, 
either  day  or  night,  it  shall  infallibly  sink  that  ship."  He 
then  sets  out  to  explain  his  "  second  idea,"  which  is  that  it 
may  be  used  as  a  torpedo  as  well.  He  heads  it,  "  How  to  be 
fastened  from  aloof  and  under  water,"  and  goes  on  to  describe 
it  more  particularly  as  "  A  way  from  a  mile  off  to  dive  and 
fasten  a  like  engine  to  any  ship,  so  as  it  may  punctually  work 
the  same  effect,  either  for  time  or  execution." 

The  Abbe  Borelli  was  another  publisher  of  a  list  of  "  De- 
vices "  about  1679  or  1680  ;  and,  after  speaking  of  his  observa- 
tions on  the  movements  of  fishes,  he  tells  us  his  ideas  on 
the  subject  of  submarine-boat  construction.  His  proposed 
under-water  vessel  was  to  be  like  an  ordinary  boat  with  a 
domed  roof  fitted  over  it  much  like  another  boat  bottom  up.  It 
was  to  be  propelled  by  oars  the  blades  of  which  were  to  be 
made  to  open  and  shut  like  a  fish's  fin,  so  that  when  thrown 
back  they  would  close  up  and  pass  easily  through  the  water, 
but  would  open  to  their  full  extent  as  soon  as  the  rower  began 
his  stroke,  and  so  hold  the  water  and  propel  the  boat  forward. 
1  Vide  Chapter  XVI. 


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SEVENTEENTH  AND  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURIES  37 

He  had  ail  ingenious  idea  for  altering  the  displacement  of  his 
vessel  and  so  causing  her  to  sink  or  float.  He  would  have 
a  large  number  of  big  leather  bottles  whose  necks  were  to  be 
fastened  to  holes  in  the  bottom  of  the  boat.  When  the  water 
rose  and  filled  these  receptacles  the  boat  would  sink,  but 
when,  by  means  of  a  sort  of  lever  and  press,  the  water  was 
squashed  out  again,  the  boat  would  rise  to  the  surface. 

This  boat  was  never  built,  but  a  picture  of  it  appeared  in 
The  Gentleman1  s  Magazine  in  1749,  which  was  accompanied 


DRAWING  OF  A  SUBMARINE  BOAT  IN  The  Gentleman's  Magazine  FOR 

JUNE  1749. 

Sometimes  said  to  be  N.  Symons'  boat,  but  almost  certainly  the  one 
designed  by  the  Abbe  Borelli  in  1680. 

by  a  letter  from  a  contributor  signing  himself  "  M.  T.,"  in  which 
he  seems  to  claim  the  invention  as  his  own.  This  boat  is 
generally  assumed  to  be  the  one  built  by  Nathaniel  Symons, 
a  carpenter  of  Harbeston  in  Devonshire,  in  the  year  1729,  of 
which  a  correspondent  who  had  seen  the  above-mentioned 
picture  sent  a  description  to  The  Gentleman's  Magazine  a 
month  or  two  later.  He  writes :  "  In  your  Mag:  for  June, 
p.  249,  you  have  given  us  a  description  of  a  Diving  Ship,  etc., 
which,  according  to  my  notion  of  it,  is  far  inferior  to  one  made 
some  years  since  by  one  Nathaniel  Symons  of  the  Parish  of 
Harbeston,  near  Totness,  Devon,  a  common  house  carpenter. 


38  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

He  made  his  boat  in  two  parts,  and  joined  them  in  the 
middle  very  tight,  with  leather,  that  no  water  could  get  in  ; 
he  made  a  false  door  in  the  side,  which,  when  he  was  in,  shut 
very  tight ;  and  tho'  his  going  in  admitted  a  small  quantity 
of  water,  it  was  no  inconvenience  ;  after  this  outer  door  was 
shut,  he  opened  the  inner  one  to  get  into  his  boat.  There 
was  more  than  four-score  weight  of  lead  to  the  bottom  of  his 
boat,  but  this  I  presume  must  be  according  to  the  dimensions  ; 
yet  he  had  a  screw  to  each  side  of  his  boat,  which,  when 
within  it,  he  could  manage  himself,  and  which,  by  means  of 
the  leather  that  join'd  the  parts  of  the  boat,  contracted  them 
to  that  degree  that  the  boat  would  sink." 

According  to  this  description  it  would  seem  that  Symons' 
boat  was  more  like  an  early  and  crude  edition  of  the  telescopic 
submarine  proposed  by  the  brothers  Rogers  in  the  present 
century,1  increasing  or  decreasing  her  displacement  according 
as  one  half  of  her  was  pushed  out  or  pulled  in.  However, 
this  boat  was  made ;  and,  whatever  she  looked  like,  she  would 
seem  to  have  been  a  fairly  practical  invention,  for  her  builder 
is  reported  to  have  made  several  successful  descents  in  her 
in  the  River  Dart  in  the  presence  of  large  numbers  of 
spectators,  remaining  under  water  for  more  than  an  hour 
together.  But  her  efficiency  brought  no  grist  to  the  mill ;  the 
poor  inventor,  who  had  spent  much  more  money  than  he 
could  afford  over  her  construction  and  trials,  was  quite 
disappointed  in  his  hopes  of  making  a  profit  on  his  expendi- 
ture. People  were  willing  enough  to  be  amused  by  watching 
his  experiments,  but  they  were  not  disposed  to  assist  him 
financially.  He  bitterly  complained  that  though  there  had 
been  many  "  persons  of  quality  "  among  the  crowds  who  had 
occupied  their  leisure  in  looking  on  at  the  trials  of  his 
submarine  vessel,  he  had  not  been  able  to  collect  more  than 
twenty  shillings  altogether.  What  eventually  became  of 
Symons  and  his  submarine,  history  does  not  relate. 
l  Vide  Chapter  XVIII. 


SEVENTEENTH  AND  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURIES  39 

To  resume  the  "  Story  of  the  Submarine  "  in  its  chrono- 
logical sequence,  we  have  to  go  back  to  the  year  1685,  in  which 
a  Neapolitan  Jesuit,  Ciminius  by  name,  claimed  to  have 
invented  a  submarine  apparatus  of  the  most  perfect  kind. 
In  a  letter  which  he  wrote  to  the  King  of  France  on  November 
25,  he  stated  that  his  invention  would  "  enable  men,  and  even 
armies,  to  rise  and  descend  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  fully 
armed,  their  hands  and  feet  at  liberty ;  to  stay  there,  sit  down, 
walk  and  run  for  seven  hours  at  a  stretch,  or  even  for  a  whole 
day."  By  the  aid  of  his  contrivance,  he  went  on  to  say, 
maritime  cities  could  be  captured  without  their  assailants 
showing  themselves,  and  fireships  could  be  conducted  under 
water  to  burn  fleets  of  ships.  In  short  there  was  not  much 
that  Ciminius'  apparatus  could  not  do,  according  to  his  own 
account.  The  King  of  France  received  another  letter,  much 
of  the  same  kind,  three  years  later,  the  writer  in  this  case 
being  the  Sieur  Roger  Doligny,  who  had  to  propose  "  A  machine 
for  travelling  and  working  under  water  without  inconvenience." 
He  could,  he  said,  construct  such  a  "  machine  "  which  would 
be  able  to  blow  up  or  destroy  ships,  bridges,  stockades  and 
other  obstacles,  could  pass  under  the  chain  closing  an  enemy's 
port,  and,  having  entered,  blow  up  or  sink  to  the  bottom 
their  ships  and  galleys.  It  would  be  as  adroit  and  agile  as  a 
fish  and  carry  several  days'  provisions  for  the  three  or  four 
persons  who  were  to  form  her  crew.  The  inventor  is  said 
to  have  made  a  small  model  of  his  proposed  submarine  which 
he  offered  to  show  the  King,  but  history  is  silent  as  to  whether 
the  King  consented  to  see  it,  as  well  as  to  its  form  and  dimen- 
sions. A  submarine-boat  design  was  patented  in  this  country 
in  1691  by  Sir  Stephen  Evance,  but  no  details  are  to  hand. 
With  the  exception  of  the  boat  with  which  Symons  experi- 
mented in  the  River  Dart  in  1729,  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century  seems  absolutely  bare  of  submarine  construction 
either  actual  or  proposed.  It  is  not  until  1772  that  the 
inventor  of  under- water  apparatus  is  again  to  the  fore.  This 


40  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

time  it  is  yet  another  Frenchman,  Le  Sieur  Dionis  of  Bordeaux, 
who  designed  and  built  a  regular  submarine  propelled  by 
eight  oars  and  provided  with  air  when  under  water  by  an 
apparatus  which  apparently  was  very  similar  to  that  which 
Cornelius  Drebbel  contrived  by  aid  of  his  "  secret  liquor." 
According  to  contemporary  accounts,  he  took  ten  people 
across  the  estuary  of  the  Gironde  under  water  on  May  28, 
1772.  The  distance  is  stated  to  have  been  five  leagues, 
and  the  time  spent  under  water  no  less  than  four  hours 
and  a  half.  This  must  have  been  a  much  more  efficient  and 
scientific  contrivance  than  the  one  with  which  J.  Day,  a 
Suffolk  wheelwright,  gained  a  good  deal  of  notoriety  about 
this  period,  and  in  which  he  eventually  met  his  death.  His 
apparatus,  in  fact,  is  hardly  worthy  to  be  called  a  submarine 
boat  at  all,  as  it  had  no  means  of  getting  about ;  but  as  it 
was  an  experiment  as  to  the  possibility  of  living  under  water 
without  renewing  the  supply  of  air  from  the  surface,  it  may 
perhaps  be  accorded  a  place  in  the  story  of  the  submarine. 

Day  had  read  or  conceived  something  of  submarine  naviga- 
tion, and,  having  got  hold  of  a  Norwich  market  boat,  fitted 
it  as  a  kind  of  submarine  and  was  bold  enough  to  descend  in 
it  in  one  of  the  Yarmouth  Broads.  He  went  down  in  thirty 
feet  of  water  and  found  that  he  was  able  to  stay  down  there 
for  four-and-twenty  hours  and  come  to  the  surface  again,  none 
the  worse  for  his  experience.  Very  pleased  with  this  successful 
experiment,  he  wished  to  proceed  with  his  researches,  but  want 
of  means  stood  in  his  way.  In  this  dilemma  he  remembered 
that  a  certain  Mr.  Christopher  Blake,  a  wealthy  man  in  those 
parts,  was  notoriously  fond  of  making  wagers  of  all  kinds. 
So  he  wrote  to  him  as  follows  : 

"  SIR, 

"  I  have  found  out  an  affair  by  which  many  thousands 
may  be  won.  It  is  of  a  paradoxical  nature,  but  can  be  per- 
formed with  ease  ;  therefore,  Sir,  if  you  chuse  to  be  informed 


SEVENTEENTH  AND  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURIES  41 

of  it,  and  give  me  one  hundred  pounds  of  every  thousand  you 
shall  win  by  it,  I  will  readily  wait  upon  you,  and  inform  you 
of  it.  I  am,  myself,  but  a  poor  mechanic,  and  not  able  to 
make  anything  by  it  without  your  assistance. 

"  Yours,  etc, 

"J.  DAY." 

After  an  interview,  preliminaries  were  settled,  and  Blake 
was  able  to  make  various  bets  that  Day  would  sink  a  ship 
in  the  sea,  with  himself  in  it,  to  a  depth  of  100  feet  and  remain 
in  it  for  twelve  hours  without  any  communication  with  above, 
and  at  the  expiration  of  that  time  rise  up  in  the  vessel.  He 
lost  his  wager  before  the  experiment  came  ofi,  because  there 
was  a  clause  in  it  which  provided  that  it  should  take  place 
within  three  months,  and  Day  was  not  ready  by  that  time. 
Blake,  however,  did  not  abandon  the  inventor,  but  went  down 
with  him  to  Plymouth  to  see  the  result.  In  a  fifty-ton  sloop 
that  had  been  purchased  for  the  purpose,  a  strongly  constructed 
cabin  was  built  amidships  fastened  to  four  beams  in  the  hold. 
It  contained  75  hogsheads  of  air,  and  was  fitted  with  a  water- 
tight hatch.  Valves  for  the  admission  of  water  were  fitted 
to  the  fore  and  after  portions  of  the  vessel,  and  ten  tons  of 
stone  ballast  were  placed  in  her  hold.  In  addition,  two 
weights,  of  ten  tons  each,  were  hung  on  either  side  to  iron 
rods  which,  passing  into  the  air-chamber,  were  fastened  to 
nuts  and  levers  which  allowed  of  their  detachment  in  order 
to  cause  the  ship  to  come  to  the  surface.  On  the  day  fixed, 
the  doomed  inventor  went  on  board,  taking  with  him  a  ham- 
mock, a  watch,  a  candle,  some  biscuits  and  a  supply  of  water. 
The  hatchway  was  screwed  fast,  but  it  was  found  that  the 
vessel  would  not  sink  until  twenty  more  tons  of  ballast  had 
been  put  on  board.  Then  down  she  went,  and  nothing  more 
was  ever  seen  of  Day  or  of  his  vessel. 

The  spot  where  this  took  place  was  between  Drake's  Island 
and  the  Prince  of  Wales  Redoubt,  where  there  are  about  28 


42  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

fathoms  of  water,  and  it  is  supposed  that  the  pressure  at  this 
depth  instantly  crushed  the  boat,  which  with  its  unfortunate 
occupant  was  carried  out  to  sea  by  some  undercurrent.  For 
though  every  appliance  that  could  be  made  available  by  H.M.S. 
Orpheus,  which  lay  near  by,  and  all  the  resources  of  the 
Dockyard  were  put  at  Mr.  Blake's  disposal,  not  the  slightest 
trace  was  found  either  of  Day  or  of  his  sloop,  although  several 
days  were  spent  in  searching  for  them. 


CHAPTER   IV 
1775-1777 


CHAPTER   IV 
1775-1777 

"  Explosion  Ships  " — The  "  Devil  Ships  "  of  Antwerp— Benbow's 
"Infernal''— Bushnell's  "Turtles" — His  attempts  to  blow 
up  H.M.SS.  Eagle  and  Cerberus. 

BY  this  time  the  inventors  and  projectors  of  submarine  boats 
had  recognised  that  the  only  really  effective  weapon  for  under- 
water attack  must  be  a  case  of  explosive — a  torpedo,  in  fact. 
So  we  hear  very  little  more  of  augers  or  even  under-water 
cannon  or  fanciful  apparatus  of  that  kind,  though  very  occa- 
sionally, here  and  there,  we  find  an  inventor's  mind  running 
wild  in  these  directions  even  in  the  nineteenth  century. 

It  will  be  impossible,  therefore,  to  continue  the  story  of  the 
evolution  of  the  submarine  without  some  reference  to  that 
of  the  torpedo  ;  the  two  things,  boat  and  weapon,  being 
bound  up  one  with  another  in  the  later  history  of  under-water 
war. 

We  have  already  seen  that  water-tight  cases  of  "  fireworks  " 
were  at  times  carried  under  water  by  divers  with  the  object 
of  injuring  an  enemy's  ships,  though  unfortunately  no  recorded 
instance  of  their  effects  is  to  be  found.  The  under-water 
"  mynes  and  water-petards  "  used  by  Buckingham  in  the 
expedition  to  the  Isle  of  Rhe  have  also  been  referred  to, 
but  here  again  nothing  in  the  way  of  information  as  to  their 
use  or  effectiveness  has  come  down  to  us.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  there  is  a  good  deal  of  interesting  matter  available  with 
regard  to  what  were  known  as  "  Explosion  Ships."  These 

45 


46  THE    STORY   OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

vessels  were  used  at  various  times  between  1585  and  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  were  without  doubt 
a  development  of  the  fireship.  The  use  of  the  latter,  a  small 
vessel  filled  with  combustible  materials,  to  destroy  by  fire  the 
fleet  of  an  opponent,  dates  from  very  remote  ages  indeed. 
They  were  used  at  the  siege  of  Tyre,  B.C.  333,  and  several 
instances  of  their  later  employment  could  be  quoted  from 
classical  histories.  The  English  first  adopted  them  at  the 
battle  of  Zuruckzee  in  1370,  and  were  attacked  by  them  at 
La  Rochelle  in  1372.  The  Spaniards  tried  them  against  the 
English  in  1406,  and  suffered  severely  from  them  themselves 
when,  in  1588,  Lord  Howard  of  Effingham  sent  in  eight  blazing 
small  craft  against  their  Armada  in  Calais  Roads.  At  this 
time  there  was  a  certain  Italian  engineer  busily  employed 
in  England  in  the  construction  of  Tilbury  Fort  and  other 
sea-coast  defences  against  the  Spaniards.  His  name  was 
Gianibelli,  and  he  is  noteworthy  as  having  been  the  first  to 
design  and  make  use  of  explosion  vessels  or  "  Infernals,"  as 
they  afterwards  came  to  be  called.  This  was  three  years 
previously,  when  he  successfully  blew  up  the  fortified  bridge 
which  the  Duke  of  Parma  had  thrown  across  the  Scheldt  to 
prevent  relief  being  carried  to  Antwerp,  which  he  was  at  that 
time  closely  besieging.  The  following  description l  of  the 
"  Devil  Ships  of  Antwerp,"  shows  that  they  were  neither 
more  nor  less  than  a  pair  of  huge  surface  torpedoes. 

"  Gianibelli  procured  or  built  two  ships,  the  Fortune  of 
seventy  tons  and  the  Hope  of  eighty,  and  with  the  assistance 
of  Bory,  a  watchmaker,  and  Tunmerman,  a  mechanician, 
together  with  a  proportion  of  workmen,  he  fitted  them  for 
explosive  vessels  as  follows.  The  vessels  being  empty,  along 
the  whole  length  of  the  hold  was  laid  a  foundation  of  brick- 
work one  foot  thick  and  five  feet  wide.  Upon  this  was  erected 
a  chamber  of  marble  masonry,  40  feet  long,  3£  feet  high  by 

i  By  Commander  Galloway,  R.N,,  in  the  United  Service  Maga- 
zine, 1895. 


DAVID   BUSHNELL 


47 


3J  feet  broad,  and  with  walls  five  feet  thick.     This  formed  the 
mine  or  chamber,  which  contained  a  charge  of  7,000  pounds 


THE    "  DEVIL-SHIPS    OF   ANTWERP,"    1585. 

From  an  old  Print. 

of  gunpowder  made  by  Gianibelli  himself,  and  of  the  greatest 
explosive  energy  then  known.     The  top  of  the  mine  was  formed 


48  THE   STORY   OF   THE    SUBMARINE 

of  blue  gravestones  placed  edgeways  and  six  feet  thick  ;  over 
this  rose  a  roof  or  hollowed  pyramid  constructed  of  slabs  of 
marble  and  containing  round  shot  of  various  weights  and 
calibres,  chain-shot,  chains,  mill-stones,  blocks  of  unhewn 
stone,  ironbound  beams  and  stakes  and  everything  heavy  that 
was  available  both  to  cause  the  explosion  to  take  a  horizontal 
direction  and  in  their  fall  to  injure  everything  they  struck. 
Between  the  sides  of  the  chamber  and  the  ribs  of  the  ship  was 
another  ominum  gatherum  of  everything  heavy,  hooked  and 
sharp  (including  harpoons)  which  '  this  wicked  witty  man 
thought  most  damageable.' ' 

Everything  fell  out  as  the  Italian  had  designed,  and  the 
bridge,  the  forts  protecting  it,  and  everybody  and  everything 
in  the  neighbourhood  were  swept  away  by  the  whirlwind  of  the 
terrible  explosion  of  the  "  infernal."  "  The  motion  of  panting 
earth  extended  its  force  and  fear  above  nine  miles,"  says  an 
old  account,  which  relates  further  that  many  of  the  big  grave- 
stones and  millstones  which  had  been  packed  on  the  top  of  the 
powder  were  carried  to  a  distance  of  a  mile.  It  was  the  re- 
membrance of  this  terrible  "infernal"  that,  more  than  any- 
thing, contributed  to  the  panic  which  broke  out  in  the  Spanish 
Armada  when  they  saw  the  eight  British  fireships  drifting 
down  on  them,  for  "they  were  thought  .  .  .  to  ..be  of  those 
kind  of  dreadful  Powder  Ships,  which  that  famous  Enginier 
Frederick  Innibel,  had  devised  not  long  before  in  the  River 
of  Skeld  ;  whereupon,  crying  out  '  the  Fire  Antwerp,'  that 
forrest  of  ships  and  vast  gallions  tumultuously  cut  their 
cables  in  their  hawses,  and  so  stood  away  in  a  shameful  con- 
fusion, by  the  Northern  Seas."  1 

Doubtless,  too,  the  fact  that  their  designer  was  then  in 
England  was  known  in  the  Spanish  fleet  and  lent  colour  to 

1  From  "  Some  Dialogues  about  Sea  Services  between  a  High 
Admiral  and  a  Captain  at  Sea,"  by  "Nathaniel  Boteler  Esqr% 
lately  a  Commander  and  a  Captain  in  one  of  H.M.  Ships  of  War," 
1685. 


THE   ««  INFERNAL'    USED  BY  THE  ENGLISH  AT  SATST-MALO,    1693. 
From  Grose's  "  Military  Antiquities." 

4 


50  THE   STORY   OF   THE   SUBMARINE 

their  suspicions.  But  it  was  not  till  the  days  of  Benbow  that 
an  organised  attempt  was  made  to  use  "  Explosion  Ships  " 
in  the  British  Navy.  Fireships  had  been  very  extensively 
used  in  the  fierce  fighting  between  the  English  and  Dutch  in 
the  wars  of  the  Commonwealth  and  Restoration,1  and  com- 
mitted a  good  deal  of  damage  on  either  side.  In  the  time  of 
William  III.  a  Dutchman  in  the  British  employment,  Meesters 
by  name,  claimed  to  have  invented  a  new  kind  of  "  infernal," 
and  several  vessels  in  the  Royal  Navy  were  equipped  under  his 
direction,  and  borne  on  the  list  as  "  explosion  ships."  Whether 
he  had  anything  to  do  with  the  famous  "  infernal"  carrying 
20,000  pounds  of  gunpowder,  and  fitted  very  much  in  the  same 
way  as  the  "  Devil  Ships  of  Antwerp,"  which  Benbow  exploded 
fruitlessly  against  the  walls  of  Saint-Malo,  is  not  known.  This 
was  the  first  attempt  that  was  made  with  an  "  infernal  "  by 
our  Navy.  Afterwards,  other  "  explosion  ships  "  were  used  on 
the  northern  French  coast,  notably  at  Dunkirk  and  Calais, 
when  Meesters  himself  took  charge  of  the  "  internals  "  under  the 
command  of  Sir  Cloudesley  Shovel.  No  good  ever  came  of 
them — whether  owing  to  want  of  enterprise  or  experience  on 
the  part  of  their  captains  and  crews  or  incapacity  on  the 
part  of  their  designer,  was  a  moot  point.2  Anyway,  ships  of 
this  class  very  soon  disappeared  from  the  Navy  List. 

The  two  courses  on  which  the  evolution  of  the  submarine 
and  torpedo  had  proceeded  up  to  this  time  now  meet  in  the 
very  practical  invention  of  the  American^  JDavid  Bushnell, 
who  has  been  termed  the  "  Father  of  the  Submarine,"  a  title 
which,  by  the  way,  has  also  been  claimed  both  for  his  pre- 

1  On  December   18,  1668,  there  were  26  fireships  in  commission 
in  the  British  Fleet. 

2  "  At  the  former    (Dunkirk),  the  machine  ships,   as    they  are 
called,  did  nothing  but  blow  up  themselves,  and  the  credit  of  their 
inventor,  as  some  say  ;    but  he  being  come  hither,  complains  he 
was  not  seconded  with  ships  as  he  ought  to  have  been." — Letter 
from  Mr.  Ellis  to  Lord  Lexington,  Whitehall,  August  9,  1695. 


DAVID   BUSHNELL  51 

decessor  Van  Drebbel  and  his  successor  Fulton.     Bushnell,  at 
any  rate,  is  more  entitled  to  it  than  the  latter  inventor. 

David  Bushnell  was  born  at  Satbrook  in  the  State  of  Maine, 
and,  according  to  his  own  written  account,  began  to  design  his 
submarine  in  1771,  though  it  was  not  finished  till  four  years 
later.  Not  only  was  this  boat  an  extremely  efficient  vessel 
considering  the  limitations  imposed  upon  the  inventor  by 
the  backward  position  of  scientific  knowledge  at  that  period, 
but  the  torpedo  with  which  he  armed  it  was  also  a  well-thought- 
out  and  ingenious  device.  There  is  a  considerable  difference 
of  opinion  among  writers  as  to  whether  it  was  propelled  by 
oars  or  paddles  or  by  means  of  an  implement  that  was  in  point 
of  fact  a  genuine  screw  propeller.  Those  who  hold  the  first 
theory  appear  to  consider  that  Bushnell  could  not  have  used 
a  "  screw  "  because  the  propeller  is  not  generally  considered 
to  have  been  invented  till  thirty  years  later.  But  here  the 
old  adage  that  "  there  is  nothing  new  under  the  sun  "  is  very 
applicable,  for  it  is  not  by  any  means  certain  to  whom  is  due 
the  honour  of  being  the  originator  of  this  most  important 
invention.  "  A  screw  to  work  in  water,  on  the  plan  of  a  wind- 
mill," was  invented  by  Robert  Hooke  in  1680,  while  a  regular 
propeller  is  said  to  have  been  experimented  with  in  France  in 
1730,  thirty  or  forty  years  before  BushnelPs  time.  So  that 
it  is  not  at  all  impossible  for  him  to  have  heard  of  some  such 
invention  and  to  have  adapted  or  improved  it  to  his  own  uses. 
At  all  events  the  words  he  himself  uses  to  describe  it  would 
certainly  seem  to  indicate  a  "  propeller."  "  An  oar,  formed 
upon  the  principle  of  the  screw,  was  fixed  in  the  forepart  of 
the  vessel ;  its  axis  entered  the  vessel,  and  being  turned 
one  way  rowed  the  vessel  forward,  but  being  turned  the 
other  way,  rowed  it  backward  ;  it  was  made  to  be  turned 
by  the  hand  or  foot."  It  is  difficult  to  see  how  this  descrip- 
tion could  apply  to  anything  in  the  nature  of  the  ordinary 
oar,  scull  or  paddle.  Moreover,  he  had  another "  oar " 
also  ;'  formed  upon  the  principle  of  the  screw  "  placed  at  the 


52  THE    STORY   OF   THE   SUBMARINE 

top  of  the  vessel,  which  aided  it  to  ascend  or  descend  just  in 
the  same  way  that  propellers  were  provided  for  a  similar 
purpose  in  the  Nordenfeldt  and  other  comparatively  modern 
submarines.  It  is  inconceivable  that  this  could  be  effected  by 
a  common  oar. 

The  boat  itself  was  built  of  wood,  and  "  bore  some  resem- 
blance to  two  upper  tortoise  shells  of  equal  size,  joined  together, 
the  place  of  entrance  into  the  vessel  being  represented 
by  the  opening  made  by  the  swell  of  the  shells  at  the  head 
of  the  animal.  This  form,  while  militating  against  speed,  yet 
was  the  best  possible  for  preserving  horizontal  stability,  one 
of  the  greatest  desiderata  in  a  submarine  vessel." 

The  following  general  description  of  Bushnell's  "turtle"  is 
abridged  from  an  account  published  towards  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century.1 

"  The  inside  was  capable  of  containing  the  operator  and  air 
sufficient  to  support  him  for  thirty  minutes.  At  the  bottom, 
opposite  the  entrance,  was  fixed  a  quantity  of  lead  for 
ballast.  At  one  edge,  which  was  directly  before  the  operator, 
was  an  oar*  for  rowing  forwards  or  backwards.  At  the  other 
edge  was  a  rudder  for  steering.  An  aperture  at  the  bottom 
with  its  valve  was  designed  to  admit  water,  for  the  purpose 
of  descending,  and  two  brass  forcing  pumps  served  to  eject  the 
water  within,  necessary  for  ascending.  ...  A  water  gauge  or 
barometer  determined  the  depth  of  descent,  a  compass  ren- 
dered visible  by  means  of  phosphorus  directed  the  course, 
and  ventilators  which,  when  submerged,  were  closed  by  the 
pressure  of  water,  at  once  admitted  a  fresh  supply  of  air  the 
moment  the  top  of  the  boat  appeared  above  water.  When  the 
navigator  would  descend  he  placed  his  foot  on  the  top  of  a 
brass  valve,  depressing  it,  by  which  he  opened  a  large  aperture 
in  the  bottom  of  the  vessel  through  which  the  water  entered 
at  his  pleasure  ;  when  he  had  admitted  a  sufficient  quantity . .  . 
and  obtained  an  equilibrium,  he  could  row  upwards  or  down- 
1  In  The  Britannic  Magazine. 


DAVID    BUSHNELL 


53 


wards,  or  continue  at  any  particular  depth  with  the  oar  placed 
near  the  top  of  the  vessel  and  formed  like  a  screw.  The  body 
of  the  vessel  was  made  exceeding  strong  ;  and  to  strengthen 
it  as  much  as  possible,  a  firm  piece  of  wood  was  framed  parallel 
to  the  conjugate  diameter  to  prevent  the  sides  yielding  to  the 
great  pressure  of  the  incumbent  water  during  a  deep  immer- 
sion. In  the  fore  part  of  the  brim  of  the  crown  of  the  machine 
was  a  socket  and  an  iron  tube  passing  through  the  socket  ; 


BUSHNELL'S  "  TURTLE,"   1776. 

the  tube  stood  upright  and  could  slide  up  and  down  in  the 
socket  six  inches  ;  at  the  top  of  the  tube  was  a  wood-screw, 
fixed  by  means  of  a  rod  which  passed  through  the  tube  and 
screwed  the  wood-screw  fast  upon  the  top  of  the  tube ;  by 
pushing  the  wood-screw  up  against  the  bottom  of  a  ship,  and 
turning  it  at  the  same  time,  it  would  enter  the  planks  ;  when 
the  wood-screw  was  firmly  fixed,  it  would  be  cast  off  by  un- 
screwing the  rod  which  fastened  it  to  the  top  of  the  tube. 
Behind  the  submarine  vessel  was  a  place  above  the  rudder  for 
carrying  a  powder  magazine,  large  enough  to  contain  150 
pounds  of  powcjer,  with  the  apparatus  used  u\  firing  it,  and 


54  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

was  secured  in  its  place  by  a  screw.)  A  strong  rope  extended 
from  the  magazine  to  the  wood-screw  above  mentioned.  When 
the  wood-screw  was  fast  in  a  ship,  both  it  and  the  powder-case 
were  cast  off  from  the  boat,  and  the  latter  being  constructed 
so  that  it  was  lighter  than  water,  rose  up  against  the  bottom 
of  the  ship  to  be  destroyed.  A  clock-work  apparatus  was  set 
in  action  at  the  same  time  and  exploded  the  charge  after  a 
sufficient  interval.  The  skilful  navigator  could  swim  so  low 
on  the  surface  of  the  water  as  to  approach  very  near  to  a  ship 
in  the  night  without  fear  of  being  discovered.  He  could  sink 
very  quickly,  keep  at  any  depth,  and  row  a  great  distance  in 
any  direction  without  coming  to  the  surface,  and  when  he  rose 
he  could  soon  obtain  a  supply  of  fresh  air,  when  if  necessary 
he  might  descend  again  and  pursue  his  course." 

Bushnell  made  an  extensive  series  of  experiments  with  his 
"  turtle,"  but  does  not  seem  to  have  been  at  all  anxious  to 
take  her  out  against  the  British,  who  were  at  that  time  operating 
on  the  coast  against  the  revolted  American  Colonists.  His  idea 
was  to  find  and  train  an  efficient  "  navigator  "  to  do  the  job 
for  him.  He  did  not,  he  says,  find  this  very  easy  to  do.  "  The 
first  I  employed  was  very  ingenious,"  he  writes,  "  and  made 
himself  master  of  the  business,  but  was  taken  sick  in  the  cam- 
paign of  1776  at  New  York,  before  he  had  an  opportunity  to 
make  use  of  his  skill,  and  never  recovered  his  health  sufficiently 
afterwards." 

Eventually  he  procured  a  Sergeant  Ezra  Lee  and  despatched 
him  to  attack  the  Eagle,  a  British  64-gun  ship  which  was  in 
charge  of  a  convoy  of  transports  lying  in  the  Hudson  River 
not  far  from  Governor's  Island.  The  "  turtle  "  was  towed  to 
the  scene  of  action  and  left  to  its  own  devices.  By  this  time 
it  was  getting  towards  morning,  but  it  was  still  dark  enough  to 
allow  Sergeant  Lee  to  approach  the  Eagle  undiscovered.  When 
near  enough  to  actually  touch  the  stern  he  dived  under  water, 
got  under  the  unsuspecting  man-of-war,  and  set  to  work  to 
attach  his  torpedo  by  means  of  the ' '  wood-screw,"  The  latter, 


BUSHNELL'S  NAVIGATOK  ABANDONS  HIS  ATTEMPT  UPON 

H.M.S.    "  EAGLE." 


p.  54] 


DAVID    BUSHNELL  55 

however,  caine  in  contact  with  some  iron  strappings  supporting 
the  rudder  hinge  and  failed  to  bite.     There  was  a  good  deal  of 
tide  running,  and  being  unable  to  work  the  "  wood-screw  " 
and  the  oar  or  propeller  at  the  same  time,  the  boat  was  swept 
away,  taking  the  torpedo  with  her.     The  air,  too,  began  to 
fail,  and  the  adventurous  Sergeant  found  himself  obliged  to 
come  to  the  surface  to  renew  it.     When  he  came  up  it  was  fast 
getting  light,  and,  despairing  of  again  approaching  the  battle- 
ship without  being  fired  on,  he  made  up  his  mind  to  get  away 
out  of  sight  behind  Governor's  Island.     Before  long,  however, 
the  queer-looking  object  which  he   navigated  attracted  the 
attention  of  one  of  the  boats  pulling  guard  round  the  fleet. 
Seeing  that  she  would  very  quickly  overhaul  him,  he  dived,  at 
the  same  time  letting  go  his  torpedo,  which  soon  afterwards 
blew  up,  to  the  great  astonishment  and  consternation  of  the 
pursuing   bluejackets.     Bushnell's   own    story   is   that    the 
British  had  troops  on  Governor's  Island,  and,  becoming  nervous 
of  discovery  as  he  was  passing,  Sergeant  Lee  cast  ofi  the  torpedo 
because  there  was  a  considerable  swell  running  and  he  thought 
it  hampered  his  movements.     Left  to  itself,  with  the  clockwork 
running,  it  blew  up  in  an  hour's  time.    One  thing  seems  to  be 
certain,  and  that  is  that  he  got  safely  away.     He  made  another 
attempt  against  the  British  shipping  in  the  Hudson,  but  first 
missed  the  ship  he  was  to  attack  and  went  a  long  way  beyond 
her,  and  when  he  eventually  got  alongside  was  again  swept 
away  by  the  tide.     Another  trial  was  made  by  some  other 
"  operator,"  but  with  equal  want  of  success.     Eventually, 
while  the  "  turtle  "  was  being  transported  from  one  part  of  the 
river  to  another  in  a  small  vessel,  the  British  came  up  with  it 
and   sank   it.     Bushnell   afterwards   contrived   to   raise   his 
"  turtle,"  but  decided  to  forgo  any  further  attempts  to  make 
use  of  her.     But  in  the  following  year  he  himself  went  down 
in  a  whaleboat  to  try  to  blow  up  H.M.S.    Cerberus — which 
lay  at  anchor  between  Connecticut  River  and  New  London — 
with  a  torpedo  or  "  machine,"  as  he  calls  it.    It  was  to  be 


56  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

drawn  alongside  the  warship  by  a  line,  and  was  fitted  with  a 
gunlock  arranged  to  explode  it  on  contact. 

On  this  occasion  Bushnell  seems  to  have  made  use  of  quite 
an  elaborate  apparatus,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  following  account 
in  a  letter  from  Commodore  Symons  to  Admiral  Sir  Peter 
Parker  dated  August  15,  1777.  "Wednesday  night,  being 
at  anchor,"  he  writes,  "  to  the  westward  of  New  London  in 
Black  Point  Bay,  the  schooner  I  had  taken  at  anchor  close  by 
me,  astern,  about  11  o'clock  at  night  we  discovered  a  line  towing 
astern  that  came  from  the  bows  ;  we  immediately  conjectured 
that  it  was  somebody  that  had  veered  himself  away  by  it,  and 
began  to  haul  in  ;  we  then  found  that  the  schooner  had  got 
hold  of  it  (who  had  taken  it  for  a  fishing  line),  gathered  in 
nearly  15  fathom,  which  was  buoyed  up  by  little  bits  of  stick 
at  stated  distances,  until  he  came  to  the  end,  at  which  was 
fastened  a  machine,  which  was  too  heavy  for  one  man  to  haul 
up,  being  upwards  of  100  Ibs. ;  the  other  people  of  the  boat 
turning  out  assisted  him,  got  it  upon  deck,  and  were  unfor- 
tunately examining  it  too  curiously  when  it  went  off  like  the 
sound  of  a  gun,  blew  the  boat  to  pieces,  set  her  in  a  flame,  and 
killed  the  three  men  that  were  in  the  stern  ;  the  fourth  who 
was  standing  forward,  was  blown  into  the  water.  I  hoisted 
out  the  boat  and  picked  him  up,  much  hurt.  As  soon  as  he 
could  recollect  himself  he  gave  me  the  following  description, 
as  near  as  he  could  remember  : — It  was  two  vessels  shaped  like 
a  boat,  about  20  inches  long,  and  a  foot  broad,  secured  to  each 
other  at  the  distance  of  4  feet  by  two  iron  bars,  one  at  each  end, 
and  an  iron  tube  or  gun-barrel  in  the  centre,  which  was  loose 
(as  he  had  himself  turned  it  round  with  his  hand)  ;  they  swam 
one  over  the  other,  the  upper  one  keel  upwards  ;  the  lower 
one  swam  properly,  but  was  so  under  water  as  just  to  keep 
the  upper  one  a  few  inches  above  the  surface  ;  to  the  after 
iron  bar  hung  a  flat  board,  to  which  was  fixed  a  wheel  about 
six  inches  in  diameter,  and  communicated  itself  to  one  on  the 
upper  s,ide  of  the  boat,  of  a  lesser  diameter.  Opposite  to  these, 


DAVID    BUSHNELL  57 

was  anotlidr  wheel,  on  the  flat  of  the  under  one  or  loaded 
vessel,  which  had  likewise  ^communication  with  the  wheels  of 
the  upper  boat ;  it  was  covered  with  lead,  and  the  keel  heavily 
loaded  in  order  to  keep  it  down  in  the  water.  The  fatal 
curiosity  of  the  seamen  set  this  wheel  a-going,  and  during 
their  looking  at  it,  which  was  about  five  minutes  from  the 
time  of  its  first  being  put  in  motion,  it  burst."  x 

Once  more  had  BushnelPs  contrivances  failed,  though  in  this 
case  his  torpedo  had  secured  a  few  unfortunate  victims.  But, 
undeterred  by  his  continued  want  of  success,  he  in  the  last 
month  of  the  year  tried  another  dodge,  which  consisted  in  set- 
ting adrift  a  large  number  of  kegs  of  powder,  fitted  as  floating 
torpedoes,  above  the  British  shipping  then  lying  in  the  Delaware 
off  Philadelphia.  Again  his  attempt  ended  in  a  fiasco  which 
induced  him  to  give  up  submarine  warfare  as  a  bad  job.  He 
paid  a  visit  to  France,  and,  returning  to  his  native  land,  settled 
down  in  Georgia,  where  he  lived  till  the  age  of  90  under  the 
assumed  name  of  Dr.  Bush.  The  reason  of  this  concealment 
of  his  identity  does  not  appear,  but  we  may  conjecture  that 
he  wished  to  disassociate  himself  from  the  system  of  submarine 
warfare  to  which  he  had  been  formerly  devoted,  for  though 
belligerents  at  this  period  did  occasionally  attempt  to  make 
use  of  torpedo  attack,  it  was  almost  universally  considered  as 
mean,  cowardly,  and  inhuman. 

We  shall  find  a  notable  instance  of  this  feeling  in  the  next 
chapter  dealing  with  the  projects  and  schemes  of  the  great 
inventor  Kobert  Fulton. 

1  Quoted  by  A.  H.  Burgoyne  in  hie  "  Submarine  Navigation." 


CHAPTER   V 
1780-1814 


59 


CHAPTER   V 

1780-1814 

Robert  Fulton,  his    schemes  and    inventions — The    Nautilus — The 
attack  on  the  Boulogne  Flotilla,  1804 — The  Mute. 

BUSHNELL'S  partial  successes  in  submarine  navigation,  if  not 
in  under-water  attack,  set  other  brains  at  work  in  the  same 
direction.  Between  the  years  1780  and  1796  no  less  than  four 
Frenchmen  busied  themselves  in  designing  submarines,  though 
none  of  them  got  beyond  plans  and  descriptions  on  paper. 
There  was  Sillon  de  Valmer,  who  projected  a  barrel-shaped 
under-water  boat  with  a  cone  at  either  end.  It  was  to  be  54 
feet  long,  propelled  by  oars,  and  to  have  a  displacement  of  8,000 
cubic  feet.  Then  there  was  one  Beaugenet,  whose  plans  are  not 
recorded,  but  who  claimed  to  be  able  to  construct  a  submarine 
armed  with  cannon  which  he  could  take  up  to  London  Bridge 
without  letting  the  British  have  any  suspicion  of  his  approach. 
M.  Armand-Maiziere  was  another  inventor  whose  boat  was 
to  be  propelled  and  raised  or  lowered  by  means  of  folding  fins 
made  on  the  principle  of  a  bird's  wing  and  actuated  by  steam ; 
while  finally  a  professor  at  the  University  of  Aix,  Jules  Fabre 
by  name,  proposed  an  under-water  vessel  shaped  like  a  peach- 
stone,  by  which,  he  said,  the  British  Navy  could  be  "  ruined." 
Nothing  whatever  came  of  these  projects. 

But  the  year  1800  saw  a  really  practical  submarine  afloat 
in  French  waters.  This  was  the  Nautilus,  built  after  the  design 
submitted  to  the  French  Directory  on  December  13,  1797,  by 
the  celebrated  American  engineer  and  inventor  Robert  Fulton. 

61 


62  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

This  remarkable  man  was  the  Hiram  Maxim  of  his  age,  so 
many  and  so  ingenious  were  his  inventions  and  projects,  most 
of  them  brought  to  the  greatest  pitch  of  practical  efficiency 
that  was  possible  with  the  means  at  his  disposal  at  the  time 
in  which  he  lived.  Besides  submarine  boats  and  torpedoes 
he  produced  a  steamboat,  an  ironclad,  a  panorama,  and 
numerous  patents  for  flax-spinning,  rope-making,  and  appara- 
tus, used  in  connection  with  canals.  He  aimed  throughout  at 
making  a  sufficiency  of  the  "  almighty  dollar,"  and  finding 
he  could  not  induce  the  French  Government  to  pay  him  to  blow 
up  British  shipping,  crossed  the  Channel  to  see  whether  the 
British  Government  would  not  make  it  worth  his  while  to  blow 
up  French  shipping.  His  first  completed  boat,  the  Nautilus, 
sometimes  referred  to  as  the  "  Bateau  Poisson,"  or  "  Fish- 
boat,"  was  launched  on  the  Seine  near  Rouen  on  July  30, 
1800,  and  at  once  carried  out  a  series  of  experiments  that  lasted 
for  three  hours.  The  portion  of  the  river  selected  was  that 
lying  between  "  Bapannul  and  the  woodyard  of  Citizen 
Thibault,"  where  there  was  25  feet  of  water.  The  next  day  he 
took  his  boat  down  the  Seine  to  Havre,  where  he  carried  out 
further  trials.  "  Soon  afterwards  he  built  at  Paris  a  second 
boat,  more  elegant  than  the  first,  and  which  bore  proudly  on 
its  taffrail,  in  letters  of  gold,  the  name  Nautilus.  This  new 
diving-boat  had  iron  ribs  and  was  sheathed  with  copper.  It 
was  of  an  elongated  ovoidal  form.  On  the  deck  was  a  groove 
in  which  lay  a  small  mast  which  could  be  shipped  by  means  of 
a  hinge.  In  the  interior,  which  was  about  six  feet  in  diameter, 
were  the  handles  of  the  oars,  which  were  arranged  in  the  form 
of  a  screw.1  A  reservoir,  into  which  water  was  introduced, 
caused  the  Nautilus  to  descend  at  will ;  a  force  pump 
expelled  the  water  and  allowed  the  boat  to  ascend.  Finished 
in  June  1801,  the  Nautilus  was  tried  on  the  Seine,  above  the 
Hotel  des  Invalides.  Fulton,  having  shut  himself  up  in  his 
boat,  with  a  sailor,  carrying  a  lighted  candle,  descended  under 
1  Rather  a  vague  description. 


ROBERT   FULTON  63 

water,  remained  there  twenty  minutes,  and  emerged  after 
having  gone  a  considerable  distance.  He  again  descended  in 
order  to  regain  thejDoint  of  departure.  He  then  reappeared  at 
the  surface  and  sailed  several  stretches,  amid  the  applause  of 
the  assembled  multitude."  * 

After  this  "  preliminary  canter  "  in  Paris,  the  new  Nautilus 
was  taken  round  to  Brest  for  further  experiments  which  were 
both  extensive  and  successful,  though  the  inventor  quite  failed 
to  damage  a  couple  of  English  brigs  that  were  cruising  on  the 
coast.  He  made  two  attempts,  but  they  on  each  occasion 
evaded  him,  being,  he  complains,  either  by  accident  or 
treachery,  always  forewarned  of  his  designs.  How  he  could 
have  known  the  extent  of  the  British  information  does  not 
appear.  He  probably  invented  the  excuse  to  explain  his  failure. 

The  Naval  Chronicle  of  1802  gives  the  following  account  of 
some  of  the  Brest  trials  : — "  Mr.  Fulton  not  only  remained  a 
whole  hour  under  water  with  three  of  his  companions,  but 
held  his  boat  parallel  to  the  horizon  at  any  given  depth.  He 
proved  the  compass  points  as  correctly  under  water  as  on  the 
surface,  and  while  under  water  the  boat  made  way  at  the  rate 
of  half  a  league  per  hour  by  means  contrived  for  that  purpose. 
Mr.  Fulton  has  already  added  to  his  boat  a  machine  by  means 
of  which  he  blew  up  a  large  boat  in  the  port  of  Brest :  and  if 
by  future  experiments  the  same  effects  could  be  produced  on 
frigates  or  ships  of  the  line,  what  will  become  of  maritime 
wars,  and  where  will  sailors  be  found  to  man  ships  of  war, 
when  it  is  a  physical  certainty  that  they  may  every  moment 
be  blown  up  into  the  air  by  means  of  a  Diving  Boat,  against 
which  no  human  foresight  can  guard  them  ?  " 

The  history  of  the  last  few  years  has  proved  the  writer's 
fears  as  to  the  manning  of  the  world's  navies  to  be  unfounded, 
although  the  submarine  and  the  torpedo  have  attained  a 
pitch  of  efficiency  not  dreamed  of  at  the  time  he  put  his  pen 
to  paper.  However,  the  French  Government  were  disposed 
1  Captain  Maguire,  U.S.  Army,  1866. 


&t  THE   STOEY   OF    THE   SUBMARINE 

to  take  much  the  same  view  of  the  matter,  and  despite  the 
almost  uniform  success  of  Fulton's  experiments,  refused  to 
have  anything  whatever  to  do  with  his  boat,  Admiral  Decres 
reporting  that  the  invention  was  "  fit  only  for  Algerines  and 
Pirates."  An  immoral  weapon,  he  considered  it,  and  he 
probably  also  was  influenced  by  the  fact  that  though  the 
British  Navy  was  superior  to  the  French,  yet  the  latter  was 
a  very  good  second,  and  it  was  not  therefore  politic  to  encourage 
a  too  cheap  and  too  effective  fighting  craft. 

Fulton's  submarines  merit  a  little  more  extended  descrip- 
tion than  that  which  has  already  been  given.  What  his  first 
boat  was  like — the  one  built  at  Rouen — is  not  quite  clear,  as 
most  of  the  diagrams  of  the  Nautilus  that  have  come  down 
to  us  apparently  refer  to  his  second  boat.  Probably  it  was 
much  the  same,  but,  like  Lake's  Argonaut  II,1  it  is  said  to  have 
had  a  kind  of  superstructure  added  to  it  which  gave  it  the 
appearance  of  an  ordinary  vessel  when  at  the  surface.  To  the 
particulars  which  have  been  given  of  the  Nautilus  II  may  be 
added  the  following  : — At  the  top  forward  rose  a  dome-like 
conning-tower  with  glass  scuttles,  and  just  abaft  it  was  attached 
a  mast  or  folding  framework  of  light  spars  which  enabled  sail 
to  be  hoisted  when  at  the  surface,  but  which  stowed  snugly 
along  the  top  of  the  boat  when  submerged.  The  keel  was 
formed  of  a  heavy  bar  of  metal  forming  a  counterpoise  and 
equilibrium.  The  anchors  and  the  apparatus  for  hoisting 
them  were  in  a  compartment  right  forward,  while  amidships 
was  the  hand-worked  crank  engine  that  revolved  the  propeller, 
which  by  some  accounts  was  a  screw,  and  according  to 
others  a  wheel  fitted  with  elliptical  buckets.  The  torpedo 
mechanism  was  practically  the  same  as  in  Bushnell's  "  turtle," 
the  "  wood-screw  "  coming  through  the  dome  of  the  conning- 
tower,  but  the  torpedo  itself  was  fitted  with  a  gun-lock  fired 
by  means  of  a  lanyard  instead  of  the  clockwork  contrivance 
that  Bushnell's  had. 

1  Vide  Chapter  XVII. 


ROBERT  FULTON 


65 


The  bargain  that  Fulton  tried  to  make  with  the  French 
Government  was  that  he  should  be  paid  40,000  francs  down — 
10,000  of  which  he  had  already  received  towards  the  expenses 
of  his  experiments — that  he  should  receive  a  proportionate 
sum  for  every  British  man-of-war  he  succeeded  in  destroying, 
and  a  "  patent  giving  himself  and  his  crew  the  quality  of 
belligerents,  so  that  if  they  were  captured  they  should  not  be 
hanged  as  pirates."  But,  as  we  have  seen,  the  French  naval 
authorities  had  quite  made  up  their  minds.  Cafiarelli,  the 
Maritime  Prefect  of  Brest,  expressly  forbade  him  to  attack 


FULTON'S  "  NAUTILUS,"  1800. 

an  English  frigate  that  was  off  the  coast,  because  "  this  type 
of  warfare  carries  with  it  the  objection  that  those  who  under- 
take it  and  those  against  whom  it  is  made  will  all  be  lost. 
This  cannot  be  called  a  gallant  death."  We  have  seen  what 
Admiral  Decres'  views  were,  and  finally  Admiral  Pleville  le 
Pelly,  the  Minister  of  War,  refused  to  accept  Fulton's  terms 
because,  he  said,  "  it  seems  impossible  to  serve  a  Commission 
for  Belligerency  to  men  who  employ  such  a  method  of  destroy- 
ing the  fleet  of  the  enemy."  As  for  Napoleon,  he  had  made 
up  his  mind  that  Fulton  was  a  charlatan  and  an  adventurer. 
Without  doubt  he  was  the  latter,  as  he  soon  showed,  for,  despite 
the  claims  that  he  had  made  of  wishing  to  assure  the  liberty 

5 


66  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

of  the  seas  by  attacking  the  English  and  so  vindicating  the 
republican  principles  he  pretended  to  hold,  he,  on  the  rejection 
of  his  proposals  by  the  French  Government,  at  once  went 
over  to  the  enemy's  country,  arriving  in  England  in  1804. 
He  does  not  seem  to  have  taken  his  submarine  with  him. 
Probably  he  had  no  chance  of  doing  so.  We  may  be  sure  that 
the  French  naval  authorities  looked  out  for  that.  What 
became  of  it  cannot  be  said.1 

The  British,  although  they  had  not  considered  that  Bushnell 
was  quite  "  playing  the  game  "  with  his  insidious  modes  of 
attack,  and  though  later,  in  the  American  War  of  1812, 
they  were  furious  at  again  being  attacked  by  torpedoes, 
yet  gave  Fulton  a  certain  amount  of  encouragement  at  first. 
In  any  case  the  naval  authorities  do  not  seem  to  have  been 
troubled  with  any  scruples  about  employing  torpedoes  them- 
selves. The  same  year  that  he  arrived  in  England  they 
did  all  they  could  to  destroy  the  French  flotilla  in  Boulogne 
harbour  by  the  use  of  "  Catamarans  "  and  "  Coffers  " 
filled  with  explosives.  Whether  these  were  made  or  designed 
by  Fulton  is  not  known  for  certain.  It  seems  very  probable 
that  they  were,  for  in  a  letter  he  wrote  to  Count  Marbois  in 
1809  he  practically  admitted  that  he  had  had  a  hand  in  their 
construction,  pleading  as  an  excuse  that  he  had  played  traitor 
to  both  French  and  English.  He  says,  "  Lord  Sidmouth 
invited  me  to  England,  Mr.  Pitt  adopted  my  plan  in  part ; 
I  knew  if  it  succeeded  against  the  Boulogne  Flotilla,  the  in- 
genuity of  the  French  engineers  would  be  exerted  ;  they  would 
soon  get  possession  of  the  engines  with  the  mode  of  using 
them,  and  the  invention  would  recoil  on  England  to  the 
destruction  of  her  marine." 

This  letter  shows  that  Fulton  was  at  least  as  unscrupulous 
as  he  was  clever.  There  are  documents  which  show  that  he 

1  This,  of  course,  refers  to  his  second  boat.  His  first  submarine 
was  dismantled  and  left  on  the  beach  near  Havre,  where  its  remains 
were  to  be  seen  many  years  later. 


ROBERT   FULTON  67 

received  at  one  time  £1,653  18s.  Sd.  from  the  British  Govern- 
ment "  in  satisfaction  of  all  claims,"  and  that  another  sum 
of  £1,533  13s.  Id.  was  paid  to  Messrs.  Cutler  &  Co.  on  his 
account  for  clockwork  apparatus  they  had  made  for  him. 
It  is  very  probable  that  this  was  what  was  used  to  explode 
the  infernal  machines  or  floating  mines  which  were  towed 
to  the  attack  of  the  Boulogne  Flotilla  by  the  "  catamarans." 
These  are  described  as  consisting  of  "  two  pieces  of  timber 
about  9  feet  long  and  9  inches  square,  placed  parallel  to  each 
other,  at  such  a  distance  as  to  receive  a  man  to  sit  between 
them  on  a  bar,  which  admitted  of  his  sinking  nearly  flush 
with  the  water,  and  occasionally  immersing  himself,  so  as 
to  prevent  his  being  seen  in  the  dark  or  by  moonlight.  "  The 
person  who  had  charge  of  this  notable  contrivance  was  a 
sailor  clad  in  black  guernsey,  waistcoat  and  trousers,  with 
a  black  cap  which  covered  his  face  ;  he  was  furnished  with  a 
paddle,  and  being  seated  in  his  marine  car,  it  was  intended  that 
he  should  take  the  clock-machine  in  tow.  This  instrument 
consisted  of  a  copper  case  about  18  or  19  feet  long,  and  some- 
thing similar  in  shape  to  a  coffin  ;  its  interior  was  furnished 
with  combustibles,  which  were  to  explode  by  the  striking  of  a 
clock  within,  which  was  to  run  a  certain  number  of  hours. 
The  sailor  in  the  catamaran,  under  cover  of  the  night,  dropping 
silently  down  with  the  tide,  was  to  attach  this  machine  to  the 
cable  of  the  enemy's  vessel,  and  thus  the  projector  hoped  that 
the  sleeping  and  unsuspecting  crew  would  be  instantly  de- 
stroyed." 

According  to  another  description  by  an  officer  who  took 
part  in  the  attack  on  the  French  flotilla,  "  the  '  coffers ' 
are  made  of  thick  plank  lined  with  lead.  A  plank  is  left  out 
for  filling  it.  When  filled  the  plank  is  put  in,  nailed  and 
caulked,  paid  all  over  with  tar,  covered  with  canvas,  and  paid 
with  hot  pitch.  Some  of  them,  when  full,  might  weigh  two 
tons.  I  may  compare  their  outward  appearance  to  a  large 
log  of  mahogany,  formed  like  a  wedge  at  each  end.  There 


68  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

was  a  line  fixed  at  one  end,  with  something  like  an  anchor. 
This  line  and  anchor  was  floated  with  pieces  of  cork,  intended 
to  hook  their  cables,  that  the  coffer  might  swing  round  and 
lay  alongside  :  the  other  line  is  the  towing  line.  The  coffers 
are  weighted  with  shot,  so  as  only  just  to  float,  by  which 
means  they  would  scarcely  be  struck  by  any  shot  in  the  water, 
and  could  pass  undiscovered." 

Lord  Keith  was  in  command  of  the  British  fleet,  flying  his 
flag  on  board  the  Monarch,  and  at  9  p.m.  on  the  night  of 
October  3,  1804,  the  catamarans,  with  their  submarine 
mines  in  tow,  accompanied  by  a  number  of  fireships,  which 
each  carried  a  large  magazine  of  powder  in  addition  to  other 
combustibles,  were  sent  in  on  their  errand  of  destruction. 
Great  things  were  expected  of  this  novel  mode  of  attack. 
It  is  even  said  that  William  Pitt  and  Lord  Harrowby  watched 
the  operations  from  Walmer  Castle,  though  beyond  a  very 
distant  glare  in  the  sky  they  cannot  have  hoped  to  see  any- 
thing at  all.  But  it  turned  out  the  most  dismal  fiasco,  and 
enabled  the  French  to  hold  the  English  up  to  Europe  as  "  the 
authors  of  a  cowardly  and  horrible  attempt  against  the  laws  of 
war."  The  French  contrived  to  dodge  all  the  fireships,  which 
went  ashore  and  blew  up  in  quite  a  magnificent  manner,  and 
the  mines  only  succeeded  in  destroying  a  pinnace  with  the  loss 
of  twenty-one  men.  General  Soult  relates  the  incident  as 
follows  : — 

"  The  pinnace  No.  267,  commanded  by  Captain  Groney, 
being  near  the  passage  of  Wimmereaux,  perceived  an  English 
sloop  under  sail,  which  appeared  to  be  directing  its  course 
towards  the  port ;  wishing  to  seize  it,  he  gave  orders  to  board 
it.  Michael  Abraham  Cloquet,  sailor,  was  the  first  who 
mounted  the  sloop  ;  five  others  followed,  and  they  extinguished 
the  fire,  but  in  seeking  for  the  helm,  which  had  been  taken 
away,  they  perceived  another  vessel,  very  long,  floating  below 
in  the  water,  which  scarcely  presented  any  surface,  and  which 
the  pinnace  accosted.  Hardly  had  they  cut  the  cable,  when 


THE  "  CATAMARAX  :'  ATTACK  OX  THE  FRENCH  FLOTILLA  AT  BOULOGNE. 

p.  68] 


ROBERT    FULTON  69 

the  fireship  blew  up  the  pinnace,  and  swallowed  all  the  men 
that  were  on  board." 

The  attack  on  the  Boulogne  Flotilla  was  indeed  a  case  of 
"  Much  cry,  little  wool."  In  England  the  news  of  the  attack 
and  its  failure  was  received  with  mingled  disgust  and  derision. 
Such  operations  were  considered  to  be  in  the  nature  of  hitting 
below  the  belt,  and  the  public  generally  regarded  them 
with  but  little  favour.  Here  is  a  specimen  of  a  derisive 
ballad  published  at  the  time  : 

"  Catamarans  are  ready  " 
(Jack  turns  his  quid  and  grins), 
"  Where  snugly  you  may  paddle 
In  water  to  your  chins." 
"  Then  who  my  blocks  will  fasten, 
My  casks  and  coffers  lay  ? 
My  pendulums  set  ticking 
And  bring  the  pins  away  ?  " 

"  Your  project  new  ?  "  Jack  mutters, 
"  Avast,  'tis  very  stale  r 
'Tis  catching  birds,  land-lubbers, 
By  salt  upon  the  tail."  * 

There  are  many  more  verses  to  the  same  effect.  The  line 
"  And  bring  the  pins  away  "  has  reference  to  the  fact  that  a 
reward  was  offered  to  each  sailor  who  brought  back  the  safety- 
peg  that  was  inserted  in  the  coffer  of  which  he  had  charge,  and 
which  put  the  clockwork  in  action  by  its  withdrawal. 

Pitt,  however,  still  coquetted  with  the  idea  of  torpedo  attack, 
and,  encouraged  by  him,  Fulton  gave  a  torpedo  demonstration 
off  Walmer  Castle  in  which  he  succeeded  in  blowing  up  the 
brig  Dorothea  in  the  presence  of  Sir  Sidney  Smith,  Lord 
Keith,  and  a  number  of  other  distinguished  naval  officers. 
About  the  same  time  he  attempted  to  destroy  two  French 
ships  off  Boulogne.  But  the  long-headed  Lord  St.  Vincent, 
who  was  at  the  head  of  naval  affairs,  would  have  nothing  to 
do  with  his  schemes.  "  Pitt,"  he  told  the  inventor  in  the 
1  Cobbet's  Weekly  Political  Register,  October  27,  1804. 


70  THE    STOKY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

course  of  an  interview  in  which  he  explained  his  torpedo  and 
the  recent  experiment  at  Walmer,  "  is  the  greatest  fool  that 
ever  existed,  to  encourage  a  mode  of  war  which  they  who 
commanded  the  seas  did  not  want,  and  which,  if  successful, 
would  deprive  them  of  it."  That  finished  Fulton  in  England, 
and  in  1806  he  betook  himself  to  the  land  of  his  birth.  There 
he  obtained  some  little  assistance  from  Congress  and  continued 
his  torpedo  experiments,  without  making  any  remarkable 
progress  with  them.  In  1809,  as  we  have  before  noted,  he 
again  approached  the  French  Government,  with  whom  he 
attempted  to  drive  the  following  bargain.  He  wanted  to  be 
guaranteed  "  1000  francs  per  gun  of  each  vessel  belonging 
to  the  enemy  which  he  should  destroy  by  his  submarine 
bombs  and  torpedoes  "  ;  and  should  England  be  finally  beaten, 
one  of  the  conditions  of  peace  was  to  be  that  she  should  pay 
him,  "  his  heirs  and  assigns,  two  millions  of  pounds  sterling." 
But  the  French  naturally  had  had  enough  of  Fulton,  and  did 
not  jump  at  his  offer.  In  1814  he  again  turned  his  attention  to 
submarine  navigation,  and  constructed  the  Mute,  a  huge  "  sub- 
mersible "  80  feet  6  inches  long,  21  feet  wide,  and  14  feet  deep. 
It  was  capable  of  accommodating  100  men,  and  was  covered 
with  iron  plating  at  the  top,  which  was  itself  made  of  timber 
a  foot  in  thickness.  It  was  moved  by  paddle-wheels,  and  is 
said  to  have  received  its  name  from  the  silence  with  which 
its  propelling  machinery  worked.  The  Mute  was  armed  with 
"  colombiads,"  or  under-water  guns,  with  which  Fulton  had 
previously  made  some  fairly  successful  experiments,  cutting 
cables  and  sinking  an  old  hulk.  But  she  was  very  very  slow, 
and  before  her  trials  were  completed  her  inventor  and  designer 
died  at  the  age  of  fifty.  He  left  behind  him  a  mass  of  writings 
and  plans  and  the  memory  of  a  prolonged  attempt  to  over- 
come the  difficulties  attending  submarine  navigation  and  under- 
water warfare.  Despite  his  want  of  material  and  monetary 
success,  he  is  rightly  recognised  as  having  been  one  of  the 
greatest  pioneers  in  submarine  navigation. 


CHAPTER   VI 
1814-1860 


CHAPTER   VI 
1814-1850 

Under- water  attacks  in  the  American  War  of  1812 — Attacks  on 
H.M.SS.  Ramillies  and  Hogue — The  brothers  Coueesins'  sub- 
marine— Johnson's  submarine,  intended  to  provide  for 
Napoleon's  escape  from  St.  Helena — Cervo's,  Payerne's,  and 
Philips'  submarines. 

DURING  the  war  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States  in  1812-14,  the  British  men-of-war  employed  on  the 
American  coast  were  subjected  to  a  considerable  number  of 
torpedo  attacks  of  all  kinds,  especially  those  which  lay  at  the 
entrance  of  Long  Island  Sound  off  New  London.  The  74-gun 
ship  Ramillies  came  in  for  more  of  these  than  any,  probably 
because  she  was  flying  the  Commodore's  broad  pennant  as 
senior  officer's  ship.  On  at  least  one  occasion  the  attempt 
seems  to  have  been  made  by  a  submarine,  very  possibly  one 
of  Fulton's  experimental  boats,  although  it  is  stated  to  have 
been  the  invention  of  a  person  living  at  Norwich,  an  inland 
township  not  very  far  from  New  London.  The  inventor 
tested  his  boat  by  taking  her  three  times  right  under  the 
Ramillies.  The  first  time  he  miscalculated  his  supply  of 
air,  and,  coming  to  the  surface  to  replenish  his  stock,  found 
himself  just  under  the  towering  stern  of  the  74-gun  ship. 
The  sentry  aft  spotted  him  at  once  and  sang  out "  Boat  ahoy !  " 
but  does  not  seem  to  have  discharged  his  musket  at  the 
strange  apparition.  But  an  alarm  gun  was  fired,  the  ship 
beat  to  quarters,  and,  fearing  a  torpedo,  cut  her  cable  and 
got  under  way.  Meanwhile  the  boat  dived  and  made  off. 
The  third  time  the  boat — which  was  propelled  by  paddles 

73 


74  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

and  was  capable,  it  is  said,  of  moving  under  water  at  the  rate 
of  three  miles  an  hour — came  up  directly  under  the  battle- 
ship, and  the  inventor  made  fast  to  her  keel  and  attempted 
— like  Bushnell's  navigator  under  the  Eagle  several  years 
previously — to  screw  a  torpedo  to  her  bottom.  But  although 
he  spent  fully  half  an  hour  over  the  job,  and  actually  succeeded 
in  boring  into  the  hull  of  the  ship,  he  finished  up  by  breaking 
his  screw,  and  had  to  abandon  his  attempt.  After  a  great 
number  of  attacks  the  Commodore  retaliated  by  embarking 
nearly  a  hundred  American  prisoners  of  war,  a  fact  which  he 
notified  to  the  United  States  Government,  so  that  if  blown 
up  they  would  share  the  fate  of  the  ship  and  her  crew. 

The  following  description  of  what  may  be  called  a  semi- 
submarine  boat,  sent  home  by  a  naval  officer,  shows  one  kind 
of  craft  the  Americans  were  in  the  habit  of  employing  in  such 
attempts.  "  American  pilot-vessels  for  towing  torpedoes,"  he 
says,  "  have  been  invented  in  New  York,  for  the  purpose  of 
propelling  through  the  water  the  infernal  torpedoes  intended  to 
blow  up  the  British  line-of-battle  ships.  A  winch  inside  this 
vessel  turns  two  wheels  on  the  outside,  and  which  are  placed 
on  the  larboard  side.  These  wheels  impel  both  the  pilot- 
vessel  and  the  torpedo  attached  to  it  at  the  rate  of  4  miles  an 
hour.  Within  the  vessel  are  twelve  men.  The  bottom  of  it  is 
not  much  unlike  that  of  a  boat,  but  its  top  is  arched.  The 
scantlings  are  those  of  a  ship  of  100  tons  :  the  planks  are  of  inch- 
and-half  stuff,  and  these  being  covered  over  with  iron  plates 
half  an  inch  in  thickness,  are  not  to  be  injured  by  shot.  On 
the  top  is  a  scuttle  for  the  crew  to  enter,  and  this  opening  is 
also  the  look-out  where  a  sentinel  is  constantly  placed.  Two 
air-holes,  forward  and  abaft,  give  sufficient  air  to  the  crew. 
The  vessel  draws  6  feet  of  water,  but  one  foot  only  is  to  be 
seen  above  the  water,  and  this  being  painted  of  a  dingy  white, 
is  not  perceivable.  The  torpedo  is,  of  course,  attached  to  the 
stern  of  this  vessel,  ropes  leading  to  it  from  2  ring-bolts  in 
the  after  part.  The  torpedo  is  filled  with  powder  and  com- 


FIRST  HALF  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    75 

bustible  matter,  and  in  its  outside  there  is  a  gun-lock  to  which 
is  fastened  a  string,  which  leads  to  a  small  scuttle  of  the  pilot- 
vessel.  Having  towed  this  infernal  machine  close  to  the 
vessel  which  it  is  intended  to  fire,  this  string  is  pulled  the 
moment  the  torpedo  touches  her,  and  the  pilot-vessel,  altering 
her  course  by  means  of  a  rudder  attached  to  her,  goes  off  in 
the  general  confusion." 

One  of  the  attempts  on  the  Ramillies  was  peculiarly 
dastardly.  She  was  short  of  provisions,  a  fact  which  somehow 
or  other  became  known  to  the  enemy,  who  fitted  out  a  schooner 
in  New  York  and  filled  her  hold  with  powder,  covering  it  over 


PROBABLE   APPEARANCE   OF  AN   AMERICAN 


TORPEDO-PILOT,"    1812. 


with  barrels  of  flour.  An  ingenious  piece  of  clockwork 
attached  to  a  gunlock  was  arranged  to  explode  the  powder  at 
a  certain  hour.  The  vessel  was  captured  by  the  British  boats, 
as  had  been  intended.  According  to  the  American  calculations 
the  prize  would  have  been  ordered  alongside  the  Ramillies 
to  hoist  out  her  provisions,  in  which  case  there  would  have 
been  an  end  of  the  fine  74  and  her  captain — Nelson's  friend 
Hardy.  As  it  happened,  the  schooner  was  ordered  to  anchor 
near  another  prize,  and  when  she  blew  up  the  prize  crew  were 
the  only  victims. 

It  appears  that  many  of  these  attempts  were  organised 
at  the  neighbouring  town  of  Stonington,  for,  writing  on 
August  12,  1814,  Sir  Thomas  Hardy  reports  his  bombard- 


76  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

merit  of  that  place,  which  had  been  "  conspicuous  in  preparing 
and  harbouring  torpedoes,  and  giving  assistance  to  the 
enemy's  attempts  at  the  destruction  of  His  Majesty's  ships 
off  New  London."  The  Victorious  picked  up  a  big  torpedo 
containing  6  barrels  of  gunpowder  suspended  from  a  raft 
in  Lynehaven  Bay  in  1813  which  is  said  to  have  been  in- 
vented by  Lieutenant  Mix  of  the  United  States  Navy,  an 
officer  who  attempted  to  blow  up  the  Plantagenet ;  and  in 
the  following  year  the  Hogue,  then  lying  in  the  dangerous 
vicinity  of  New  London,  was  attacked  by  a  whaleboat 
carrying  a  spar  torpedo  which  exploded  under  the  starboard 
bow,  but  was  not  sufficiently  powerful  to  do  any  damage 
worth  mentioning.  The  boat  got  away,  but  was  later  on 
burnt  by  the  boats  of  H.M.S.  Maidstone.  This  closes  the 
story  of  the  American  torpedo-campaign.  Not  many  actual 
submarines  were  used  in  it,  but  in  tracing  the  story  of  the 
Submarine  we  cannot  well  pass  over  matters  which  have  such 
a  close  connection  with  its  development. 

In  England,  in  the  meanwhile,  although  considerable  indig- 
nation was  expressed  at  the  methods  of  under-water  attack 
employed  by  the  Americans,  its  possibilities  were  not  lost  sight 
of.  One  Hodgman  is  said  to  have  experimented  with  a  sub- 
marine in  1801,  and  in  a  military  work  published  in  1811  there 
is  a  description  of  a  "  machine,"  which  is  nothing  less  than  a 
torpedo,  "  used  for  the  purpose  of  setting  fire  to  and  destroying 
bridges."  In  1814  the  Naval  Chronicle  gave  an  account  of  a 
submarine  under  construction,  in  reference  to  which  it  re- 
marks, "It  is  supposed  Government  intends  this  formidable 
invention  to  counteract  the  torpedo  system  of  America." 
The  boat  is  described  as  being  in  a  state  of  considerable  for- 
wardness, and  was  a  singular  vessel  "in  shape  much  like  a 
porpoise."  It  was  27  feet  long,  5  deep  and  5  broad,  arched 
over  and  sharp  at  each  end,  was  principally  constructed  of 
wrought  and  cast  iron,  and  was  proof  against  12-pounders  at 
"  point  blank  range."  It  was  fitted  with  sails  for  propulsioij 


FIRST  HALF  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    77 

at  the  surface  which,  like  those  of  Fulton's  Nautilus,  could  be 
struck  in  two  minutes.  The  boat  was  said  to  be  able  to  dive 
to  any  depth,  remain  below  for  twelve  hours  at  a  stretch,  and 
move  at  four  knots  an  hour  by  means  of  oars  fitted  for  the 
purpose.  "  The  proprietor,"  adds  the  description,  "  can  attach 
any  quantity  of  gunpowder  to  any  sunken  body  and  explode 
the  same  at  pleasure."  The  last  sentence  seems  to  indicate 
that  the  mysterious  vessel  was  intended  for  a  wrecking  boat 
or  submarine  worker,  rather  than  for  warlike  purposes.  It  is 
a  great  pity  that  so  little  information  is  given  about  her.  The 
place  of  her  construction  is  not  mentioned,  neither  is  the 
name  of  her  "  proprietor  "  nor  of  her  designer. 

Abroad  inventors  were  still  at  work.  In  France  the  brothers 
Couessin  produced  a  boat  in  1809  in  which  Napoleon  took  con- 
siderable interest.  It  was  over  30  feet  long  and  something  like 
an  enormous  barrel  with  the  addition  of  conical  ends.  It  was 
built  of  wood  and  constructed  in  the  most  massive  manner  to 
withstand  the  pressure  of  the  water.  It  had  sails  for  use 
above  water  and  oars  for  propulsion  when  submerged.  But 
it  could  only  crawl  about  at  a  knot  and  a  half  an  hour,  and 
moreover  was  not  a  true  submarine — that  is  to  say,  a  boat 
which  could  at  times  be  entirely  cut  off  from  the  surface — for 
it  relied  for  its  air  supply  on  a  couple  of  long  flexible  pipes  or 
hoses  which  were  buoyed  at  the  surface.  These  were  on  one 
occasion  very  nearly  her  undoing,  for  the  water  got  down  one 
of  them  and  she  sank.  Luckily  the  crew  was  able  to  stop  the 
inflow,  and  she  was  got  to  the  surface.  The  Nautile,  as  she  was 
called,  did  not  fulfil  the  expectations  of  her  designers  or  their 
patrons,  and,  like  hosts  of  other  submarines,  was  abandoned. 

The  next  boat  to  be  noted  is  a  somewhat  remarkable  one 
that  was  built  by  a  noted  smuggler  by  the  name  of  Johnson, 
who  is  said  to  have  been  originally  an  officer  in  the  British 
Navy  and  to  have  carried  out  some  of  Fulton's  experiments 
for  the  Admiralty  or  at  least  made  similar  ones.  Possibly  he 
was  the  "  proprietor  "  of  the  boat  building  in  1814  which  is 


78  THE   STORY   OF   THE   SUBMARINE 

mentioned  above.  He  was  what  is  known  as  a  "  cool  customer," 
and  it  is  related  that  in  the  course  of  one  of  his  experiments 
in  a  submarine  it  got  foul,  when  under  water,  of  a  ship's  cable 
and  remained  immovable.  Johnson  calmly  pulled  out  his 
watch  and  said  to  his  assistant,  "  We  have  but  two  minutes  and 
a  half  to  live  unless  we  can  get  clear  of  that  cable."  They  con- 
trived to  do  so,  and  not  very  long  afterwards  Johnson  seems  to 
have  got  into  communication  with  some  of  Napoleon's  agents 
who  were  trying  to  arrange  for  his  escape  from  St.  Helena. 
The  temptations  held  out  to  him  were  too  much  for  his 
patriotism,  and  he  agreed  to  place  himself  and  his  skill  and 
experience  at  their  disposal.  The  escape  was  to  be  made  in  a 
large  submarine,  which  he  set  to  work  to  build.  He  was 
promised  £40,000  the  day  she  was  finished,  and  wealth  "  beyond 
the  dreams  of  avarice  "  if  he  brought  the  project  to  a  successful 
termination.  The  boat  was  a  big  affair,  no  less  than  100  feet 
long  and  provided  with  two  folding  masts.  It  was  probably 
intended  that  she  should  make  the  greater  part  of  the  passage 
to  St.  Helena  under  sail,  and  arrive  off  the  island  at  nightfall. 
She  was  then  to  dive  to  avoid  the  British  cruisers  and  get 
close  in  shore.  Thence  her  commander  was  to  despatch  a 
messenger  to  the  Emperor  and  wait  as  long  as  was  necessary. 
It  is  quite  possible  that  a  man  of  Johnson's  boldness  and 
resource  might  have  been  successful,  but  "  there's  many  a  slip 
'twixt  the  cup  and  the  lip."  On  the  very  day  that  the  boat 
was  so  far  finished  that  he  was  about  to  set  to  work  to  fasten 
on  her  copper  sheathing,  the  news  arrived  that  the  Great 
Napoleon  was  no  more.  It  was  a  sad  blow  to  Johnson's  hopes 
of  ill-gotten  gain,  but  he  determined  to  continue  the  study  of 
submarine  navigation,  and  later  on  exhibited  another  under- 
water boat  in  London — (what  became  of  the  first  one  does 
not  appear.  Possibly  there  was  only  one,  which  was  brought 
forward  a  second  time).  This  was  intended  for  use  by  the 
Spanish  Committee  against  the  French  fleet  then  blockading 
Cadiz  ;  but  the  project  fell  through. 


FIRST  HALF  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    79 

As  the  nineteenth  century  advances,  the  plans  and  projects 
for  submarine  navigation  become  so  numerous  that  it  will  be 
necessary  to  confine  our  attention  to  those  which  were  actually 
constructed,  although  some  of  the  paper  designs  are  so  interest- 
ing, so  curious,  and  so  grotesque  that  it  is  proposed  to  devote  a 
chapter  to  a  few  of  the  most  remarkable  at  the  end  of  the  book. 

Shuldam,  an  American  officer,  was  the  first  to  build  a 
submarine  after  Johnson.  This  was  in  the  year  1823.  It  did 
not  turn  out  a  success,  and  that  is  about  all  we  know  concern- 
ing it.  Cervo,  a  Spaniard,  adopted  the  form  of  a  sphere  for  an 
under- water  vessel  which  he  constructed  in  1831.  He  met 
with  the  same  fate  as  Day.  He  went  down  in  his  boat  and 
was  never  seen  again.  The  year  1835  is  remarkable  because 
the  famous  inventor  M.  Gustave  Zede,  who  has  done  so  much 
for  submarine  navigation,  then  made  his  first  appearance  in 
this  connection.  His  was  a  very  minor  and  secondary  part,  as 
he  was  merely  the  secretary  of  a  committee  that  was  appointed 
by  the  French  Government  to  report  on  a  small  submarine 
boat  that  had  been  invented  by  a  M.  Villeroi  in  1832.  It  was 
only  10  feet  long  and  3  wide,  but  the  inventor  made  some  very 
successful  descents,  and  in  1835  he  repeated  his  experiments 
in  the  presence  of  Sir  Sidney  Smith  and  many  other  naval 
officers,  most  of  them,  of  course,  French.  As  to  the  after 
fate  of  Villeroi's  boat,  history,  as  is  almost  universally  the  case, 
is  entirely  silent.  Possibly  the  fatal  accident  that  had  over- 
taken Dr.  Petit  of  Amiens  the  year  previous  had  prejudiced 
the  public  against  these  dangerous  craft.  After  manoeuvring 
at  the  surface  at  Saint-Valery-sur-Somme,  the  doctor  ventured 
on  his  first  descent — and  his  last.  He  was  found  next  morning 
at  low  tide  sleeping  his  last  sleep  in  the  coffin-ship  he  had 
made,  which  was  lying  in  the  mud  of  the  harbour. 

It  was  not  till  1846  that  a  really  practical  submarine  vessel 
was  invented  by  Dr.  Payerne,  a  Frenchman.  It  was  rather 
an  under- water  worker  than  a  war- vessel,  and  proved  of  great 
use  in  the  construction  of  the  big  Cherbourg  breakwater. 


80 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 


Like  Simon  Lake's  wrecking  boat,  which  we  shall  notice  later 
on,  it  had  a  chamber  in  which  the  pressure  of  air  could  be  raised 
sufficiently  to  prevent  the  entrance  of  water  when  a  manhole 
was  opened.  This  gave  the  divers  whom  she  carried  ingress 
and  egress,  so  that  they  could  carry  on  their  work  below  water. 
Dr.  Payerne  seems  to  have  constructed  two  or  three  sub- 
marines between  1843  and  1859.  The  following  description  of 
one  of  them  appeared  in  an  English  journal  in  1854 : x  "  The 
inventor,  Dr.  Payerne,  has  not  only  discovered  means  to 
descend  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea  and  to  work  there  at  his  ease 


PHILIPS'  SUBMARINE,  1851. 

By  favour  of  the  Illustrated  London  News. 

with  a  body  of  operatives,  and  to  remain  there  as  long  as  he 
pleases,  replacing  by  chymical  proceedings  the  oxygen  absorbed, 
but  he  has  discovered  a  method  of  directing  the  boat  under 
water  by  steam,  as  if  it  were  on  the  surface.  He  has  engaged 
to  start  from  any  harbour  in  France  and  to  reach  the  coast 
of  England,  though  navigating  under  water." 

About  this  period  considerable  attention  was  "directed  to  a 
couple  of  cigar-shaped  submarine  boats  that  were  constructed 
by  Lodner  D.  Philips,  an  American  shoemaker.  They  were 
both  40  feet  long,  but  one  was  rather  bigger  round  than  the 
other.  The  first  was  merely  for  submarine  exploration  and 
navigation,  and  had  no  armament.  The  second  was  intended 
1  The  Illustrated  London  News. 


FIRST  HALF  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY    81 


or 


for  under-water  attack,  and  was  armed  with  a  gun 
"  colombiad  "  firing  upwards  through  the  iron  plating  with 
which  the  upper  part  of  the  boat  was  covered  and  passing 
through  a  ball-and-socket  joint  which  permitted  the  elevation 
to  be  adjusted  without  letting  water  into  the  boat.  Besides 
this  she  carried  a  torpedo  in  a  kind  of  well  aft,  which  on  being 
released  was  to  float  up  under  the  bottom  of  the  ship  to  be 
attacked,  while  yet  another  torpedo,  spherical  in  shape,  reposed 
in  a  recess  at  the  bow  ready  to  be  taken  in  tow  by  a  species  of 


PHLLIPS'    SECOND    SUBMARINE,    WITH    UNDER-WATER    GUN. 

subaqueous  rocket  which  could  be  fired  from  just  above  it. 
The  boat  was  cylindrical  with  conical  ends,  and  seems  to  have 
proved  a  considerable  success.  It  was  launched  on  Lake 
Michigan  in  1851  and  carried  out  several  public  trials.  On  one 
occasion  the  inventor,  taking  with  him  his  wife  and  two 
children,  spent  the  whole  day  in  exploring  the  bottom  of  the 
lake  without  coming  to  the  surface  to  renew  the  air  supply, 
and  on  another  fired  his  "  colombiad  "  through  the  bottom  of 
an  old  hulk  without  any  difficulty.  Unfortunately  he  experi- 
mented once  too  often,  and  met  his  end  in  the  depths  of  Lake 

6 


82  THE   STORY   OF   THE   SUBMARINE 

Erie.     It  is  supposed  that  he  descended  too  low,  and  that  hia 
boat  was  crushed  by  the  enormous  water-pressure. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  claims  he  put  forward  as  to 
the  capabilities  of  his  invention.  "  He  has  while  in  his  boat 
(this  would  probably  be  the  smaller  one)  under  water,  by 
means  of  machinery  working  through  its  side,  sawed  off 
timbers  14  inches  square.  He  can  sink  his  boat  from  the 
surface  almost  instantly,  either  to  a  few  inches  or  feet 
from  the  surface  of  the  water,  or  to  100  or  more  feet,  and 
again  rise  quickly  or  very  slowly  to  or  near  the  surface.  He 
can  attach  powder-torpedoes  to  the  outside  of  his  boat  on  its 
deck  or  sides,  fix  or  anchor  the  torpedoes  under  the  ship's 
bottom,  set  in  motion  clockwork  to  fire  the  torpedoes, 
simultaneously  or  at  intervals,  and  retire,  still  under  water, 
out  of  danger  from  the  explosion  and  out  of  reach  of  the 
enemy's  guns.  He  can  enter  an  enemy's  harbour  under  water 
and  make  surveys,  only  showing  above  the  surface  a  sight- 
tube  no  more  than  half  an  inch  in  diameter,  and  retire,  still 
under  water,  and  proceed  outside  to  sea  and  make  his  report  to 
the  commander  of  a  fleet  or  ship." 

The  boat  was  propelled  by  a  hand-worked  propeller, 
although  Philips  hoped  later  on  to  instal  a  steam  engine, 
and  sank  and  rose  by  the  process  of  filling  and  emptying 
a  series  of  water-tanks.  A  Mr.  William  Delaney,  who  had 
been  associated  with  him  in  the  construction  of  his  earlier 
boats,  brought  the  plans  of  a  larger  one  to  England  in 
1859  and  submitted  them  to  the  Government.  Nothing 
further  seems  to  have  been  done  in  the  matter.  The  new 
boat  was  to  have  been  60  feet  long  and  7  feet  6  inches  in 
diameter,  and  had  the  peculiarity  that  its  propeller,  being 
fitted  with  a  species  of  universal  joint,  could  perform  the 
functions  of  a  rudder  in  addition  to  its  ordinary  work  of  driving 
the  vessel  forward.  The  forepart  of  the  boat  was  fitted 
with  a  kind  of  closely  fitting  ferrule  or  cap  so  that,  in  the  case  of 
collision,  the  boat  could  cast  it  off  and  go  astern  out  of  danger. 


CHAPTER  VII 

1850-1860 


CHAPTER  VII 

1850-1860 

The  story  of  Bauer,  the  German  inventor  of  submarines — His 
Brandtaucher — The  Diable  Marin  built  for  Russia — Submarine 
Affairs  during  the  Crimean  War — Deschamps  and  Vilcoquet's 
submarine — Conseil's  boat — The  Ictineo  of  Narciso  Monturiol. 

"  OF  all  naval  devices  that  have  been  made  the  object  of 
painstaking  invention,  there  is  probably  none  whose  history 
at  once  dates  back  so  far  and  includes  so  many  and  heart- 
breaking failures."  So  writes  an  American  journalist  with 
regard  to  the  submarine  torpedo  boat.  And  of  all  the  in- 
ventors who  have  grappled  with  the  subject  of  submarine  navi- 
gation, there  has  been  no  one  who  from  personal  experience  could 
more  freely  endorse  this  than  the  German  inventor  Wilhelm 
Bauer,  who  built  his  first  submarine  in  the  year  1850.  The 
story  of  Bauer  is  one  continued  series  of  disappointments, 
due  not  so  much  to  inferiority  of  design  or  workmanship  on 
his  part  as  to  the  action  of  the  naval  authorities  of  the  various 
nations  who,  one  after  the  other,  coquetted  with  his  inventions. 
Born  at  Dillingin  in  Bavaria  in  1822,  he  entered  the  army 
when  twenty  years  of  age,  and  after  serving  as  a  cavalryman 
for  seven  years  his  mechanical  aptitude  caused  him  to  be 
transferred  to  the  artillery.  During  the  years  1848-50 
an  intermittent  war  raged  between  Germany  and  Denmark. 
At  this  period  the  fine  war-fleet  which  Germany  now  boasts 
was  in  its  feeblest  infancy,  and  no  match  for  the  comparatively 
powerful  Danish  Navy.  The  whole  German  coast  was  practi- 
paily  open  to  its  attack,  and  the  damages  it  committed  in  tk€! 

85 


86 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 


course  of  hostilities  set  Bauer's  mind  to  work  on  the  subject 
of  a  submarine  boat  which  would  cause  the  Danish  raiders 
to  keep  at  a  more  respectful  distance.  The  project  was 
enthusiastically  taken  up  by  the  army  engaged  in  Schleswig- 
Holstein,  which  subscribed  the  bulk  of  the  money  that  was 
required  for  the  construction  of  his  first  submarine — about 
£600.  It  was  a  curious-looking  craft,  short,  narrow,  and 
deep  in  proportion  to  its  breadth.  It  was  built  in  the  workshops 
of  Messrs.  Schneffel  &  Howaldt  at  Kiel  and  christened  Die 
Brandtaucher,  or  the  "  Marine  Diver,"  by  its  inventor.  It 


BAUER'S  "  BRANDTAUCHER,"  1850. 

had  a  displacement  of  35  tons  and  was  driven  by  a  screw 
actuated  by  a  hand-turned  engine  amidships. 

At  the  end  of  the  year  Bauer  took  out  the  Brandtaucher 
towards  the  Danish  fleet  then  blockading  the  port  of  Kiel, 
with  the  result  that  the  Danes  became  so  much  alarmed  at 
the  appearance  of  this  new  engine  of  war  that  they  stood 
much  farther  out  to  sea.  In  February  1851  Bauer  made 
a  second  trial,  from  which  he  barely  escaped  with  his  life. 
Accompanied  by  a  couple  of  sailors  he  took  the  boat  below 
water  and  dived  so  deeply  that  she  was  unable  to  resist  the 
pressure  of  the  water  and  began  to  leak  in  the  most  alarming 
manner,  finally  settling  on  the  bottom  in  60  feet  of  water. 
Bauer,  however,  kept  his  wits  about  him,  and  after  a  long 


WILHELM    BAUER  87 

argument  with  his  crew,  who  had  given  up  all  hope,  induced 
them  to  assist  him  to  pump  more  water  into  the  boat  till  the 
air  contained  in  it  was  at  such  a  state  of  compression  that 
the  pressure  equalled  that  of  the  water  outside.  He  was 
then  able  to  open  the  scuttle  and  escape  with  his  men  to  the 
surface.  His  friends  above  water  during  this  crisis  caused 
him  more  anxiety  than  anything  else,  as,  in  their  efforts  to 
grapple  the  sunken  submarine,  their  grapnels  kept  on  banging 
against  the  glass  scuttles,  threatening  to  break  them  in  at 
every  moment.  Had  this  occurred,  Bauer  and  his  companions 
must  inevitably  have  been  drowned.  As  for  the  Brandtaucher , 
it  lay  in  the  mud  at  the  bottom  of  Kiel  harbour  till  1887, 
when  it  was  fished  up  and  placed  in  the  Naval  School  at  Kiel. 
There  it  remained  till  1906,  when  it  was  taken  to  Berlin  and 
placed  in  the  Naval  Museum. 

Bauer  appealed  in  vain  to  the  Bavarian  Government  to 
provide  him  with  funds  for  the  construction  of  a  second  sub- 
marine, and  then  betook  himself  to  Austria,  where  he  met 
with  a  severe  disappointment.  He  tried  without  success 
to  get  the  Government  to  consider  his  plans,  until  a  lady 
with  a  great  deal  of  Court  influence  was  attracted  by  the  idea 
and  persuaded  the  Emperor  to  see  him.  As  a  result  of  this 
interview  a  commission  was  appointed  to  examine  his  plans. 
They  were  reported  upon  favourably,  and  a  considerable 
sum  of  money  was  voted  to  Bauer  to  enable  him  to  continue 
his  experiments.  Then  at  the  last  minute  the  Minister  of 
Commerce,  Von  Baumgarten,  whose  Department  had  been 
one  of  the  largest  subscribers,  was  seized  with  misgivings 
and  raised  such  a  storm  of  opposition  to  the  project  that 
it  was  dropped. 

But  Bauer,  it  has  been  well  said,  was  "  the  most  persistent 
inventor  to  be  found  in  the  whole  history  of  submarine  navi- 
gation,"1 and  made  up  his  mind  to  "try  again"  in  another 
quarter.  He  came  to  England,  and  was  fortunate  enough  to 
*  A.  H.  Burgoyne  in  "  Submarine  Navigation," 


88  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

find  a  warm  ally  in  the  person  of  the  Prince  Consort.  Money 
was  forthcoming,  and  the  inventor  set  to  work  on  a  submarine 
and  a  corvette  as  well.  But  he  was  not  allowed  to  carry  out 
his  plans  in  their  entirety.  Scott  Russell,  Charles  Fox,  and 
the  celebrated  engineer  Brunei  were  associated  with  him  in  the 
construction  of  his  submarine,  while  Lord  Palmerston  is  also 
said  to  have  had  a  finger  in  the  pie.  The  result  was  that 
"  too  many  cooks  spoiled  the  broth."  The  boat  began  her 
trials,  and  soon  finished  by  sinking  and  drowning  a  large 
number  of  men.  Bauer  and  his  invention  were  at  once  at 


BAUER'S  "  DIABLE  MARIN,"  1855. 

a  discount  in  this  country,  although  it  is  said  that  his  plans 
were  retained  or  copied  by  some  of  his  assistants  in  the  building 
of  the  ill-fated  boat.  Anyway,  Scott  Russell  brought  out 
a  submarine  a  year  or  two  later  which  bore  a  very  suspicious 
resemblance  to  a  boat  that  Bauer  built  about  this  time  for 
the  Russian  Government  called  the  Diable  Marin.  It  was 
intended  to  be  employed  at  the  siege  of  Sebastopol,  and  cost 
the  Government  £7000  to  build.  She  was  to  be  propelled 
by  oars  pulled  by  men  in  diving-dresses  supplied  with  air 
by  a  tube  with  a  funnel-shaped  float.  It  also  sank  on  its 
trials  and  drowned  the  crew. 
t  After  leaving  England  Bauer  had  approached  the. 


WILHELM    BAUER  89 

Government  of  the  United  States,  but  they  would  not 
have  anything  to  do  with  him.  He  next  went  to  Russia, 
then  at  war  with  England,  France  and  Turkey,  where 
he  was  taken  up  by  the  Grand  Duke  Constantine  and 
built  the  Diable  Marin  referred  to  above.  The  new  boat 
was  52  feet  long  and  over  12  feet  wide,  and  was  somewhat 
of  the  same  shape  as  the  ill-fated  Brandtaucher.  It  was  pro- 
pelled by  a  single  screw  driven  by  gearing  connected  with 
a  kind  of  treadmill  which  was  7  feet  in  diameter.  When 
it  was  desired  to  descend,  water  was  pumped  into  three  big 
cylinders,  10  feet  high  and  4  feet  6  inches  in  diameter.  To 
ascend  they  were,  of  course,  emptied  again.  There  was  a 
smaller  cylinder  whose  duty  was  to  keep  the  boat  steady — 
a  kind  of  ballast  tank. 

The  mode  of  attack  by  the  Diable  Marin  was  to  be  a  some- 
what curious  one.  A  big  mine  holding  500  Ib.  of  powder  was 
carried  forward,  and  to  fasten  this  to  the  bottom  of  an  enemy's 
ship  a  pair  of  long,  thick  india-rubber  gloves  were  fitted  to 
the  hull  of  the  vessel  so  that  a  man  standing  right  forward 
and  looking  through  a  pair  of  thick  glass  scuttles  provided 
for  the  purpose,  could  put  his  arms  into  the  gloves,  detach 
the  mine,  and  affix  it  where  required. 

There  was  an  opaque  black  fog  hanging  round  Cronstadt 
in  the  small  hours  of  the  morning  of  May  26,  1856,  and  a 
sentinel  perched  up  on  some  of  the  immense  granite  forti- 
fications that  had  held  the  British  Baltic  Fleet  so  long  at 
bay  suddenly  saw  a  mysterious  object  floating  close  to  his 
post.  Presently  he  discerned  a  man  standing  upon  it,  and 
challenged.  To  his  surprise  h  e  received  the  correct  countersign, 
and,  bewildered  and  alarmed  at  what  he  considered  a  super- 
natural manifestation,  he  threw  down  his  rifle  and  took  to 
his  heels.  This  was  about  three  in  the  morning.  Sentry 
after  sentry  was  equally  flabbergasted,  and  so  Bauer  made 
a  kind  of  triumphal  entry  into  the  impregnable  harbour, 


90  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

After  this  the  inventor  carried  out  a  very  large  number 
of  successful  trials  with  his  boat.  Submerged  17  feet  under 
water  he  wrote  letters  to  his  Russian  patron,  to  the  King 
of  his  own  country,  and  to  his  mother. 

When  Alexander  II.  was  crowned,  Bauer  shipped  a  band 
of  four  musicians  and  celebrated  the  occasion  by  having  the 
Russian  National  Hymn  played  under  water  while  his  crew 
joined  in  with  the  words.  He  was  submerged  for  four  hours 
while  this  ceremony  went  on.  It  is  not  known  whether  he 
found  out  if  the  fishes  had  any  ears  for  music  or  not.  But 
somehow  or  other  Bauer  seems  to  have  got  himself  disliked 
in  naval  circles.  Possibly  he  bored  people  with  his  inventions 
and  projects.  They  wanted  to  get  rid  of  him,  and  so  en- 
deavoured to  find  out  something  his  boat  could  not  do.  He 
was  told  to  pass  under  a  certain  ship  that  lay  in  very  shallow 
water,  but  he  was  not  informed  of  the  depth.  The  consequence 
was  that  the  propeller  got  entangled  in  a  mass  of  seaweed 
and  could  not  be  extricated.  Bauer  only  just  managed  to  save 
his  life  and  those  of  his  crew  by  pumping  out  all  the  water 
and  letting  go  the  emergency  safety  weights.  Up  came  the 
bow  to  the  surface  and  they  scrambled  out,  all  but  Bauer, 
who  was  still  engaged  below.  He  held  on  till  a  sudden  inrush 
of  water  drove  him  out.  This  is  said  to  have  been  his  one 
hundred  and  thirty-fourth  experiment  in  submarine  navi- 
gation, which  shows  what  an  indefatigable  and  pertinacious 
inventor  he  was.  But  after  this  the  Russians  had  had 
enough  of  him ;  and  after  he  had  raised  his  Diable  Marin,  a 
job  which  took  him  four  weeks  of  incessant  hard  work,  a 
final  disaster  overtook  him  in  the  total  loss  of  his  boat,  which 
went  down  in  deep  water  ofi  Ochda,  a  long  way  from  land. 
According  to  one  account  she  was  deliberately  taken  out  and 
sunk  by  order  of  the  Russian  Admiralty.  Then  he  was  ordered 
to  build  a  submarine  corvette  to  carry  24  guns,  and  this 
was  followed  by  an  intimation  that  he  should  betake  himself 
to  Siberia  in  order  that  he  might  the  better  keep  her  construe- 


P.  90] 


BAUER    AND   THE   RUSSIAN  SENTRY. Seep.   89. 


WILHELM    BAUER  91 

tion  a  State  secret.  This  was  the  last  straw.  Bauer  saw  that 
the  Russian  Government  was  bent  on  making  things  unpleasant 
for  him,  and  asked  permission  to  quit  the  country.  Four 
times  had  he  to  make  this  request  before  it  was  granted. 
He  wandered  to  France,  Switzerland,  and  back  to  his  native 
land,  often  in  dire  distress  from  want  of  funds.  His  last 
attempt  in  the  direction  of  submarine  navigation  was  in  1861, 
when  he  attempted  to  float  a  company  in  Germany  for 
the  construction  of  a  novel  submarine  which  he  entitled  a 
"  Bruleur  des  Cotes."  »  But  sufficient  money  was  not  forth- 
coming, the  project  fell  through,  and  at  length  his  determination 
to  succeed  gave  way.  Worn  out  by  repeated  disappointments 
he  settled  in  Munich,  where  he  fell  into  a  decline  and,  after 
being  bedridden  for  seven  years,  died  in  1875.  So  died 
Wilhelm  Bauer,  a  clever  man,  cool,  brave  and  determined, 
but  the  victim  of  never-ending  ill-luck. 

We  have  referred  to  the  intention  of  the  British  Government 
to  make  use  of  a  submarine  in  the  war  with  Russia.  It 
was  probably  induced  to  try  this  system  of  attack  by  the 
torpedo  attempts  made  on  the  British  Baltic  Fleet.  More 
than  one  ship  was  struck  by  Russian  submarine  mines,  but 
they  were  too  feeble  to  do  more  than  shake  things  up  generally 
and  break  the  crockery.  In  1855  an  attempt  was  made  by 
the  British  to  blow  up  one  of  the  Russian  line-of-battle  ships 
in  the  harbour  of  Sebastopol.  Boatswain  John  Shepherd,  R.N., 
took  in  a  torpedo  in  a  punt  on  two  occasions,  his  attempt 
being  described  by  Lord  Lyons  as  "  a  bold  one  and  gallantly 
executed."  He  does  not  seem  to  have  been  successful  in 
his  endeavours,  but  his  bravery  brought  him  the  coveted 
distinction  of  the  Victoria  Cross. 

As   may  naturally  be   supposed,   the   Crimean   War,   like 

other  campaigns  before  and  since,  stimulated  the  activity 

of  inventors  and  designers  of  warlike  material,  and  among 

the  rest  those  who  studied  submarine  navigation  and  under- 

i  Vide  Chapter  XVIII. 


92  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

water  attack.  We  have  referred  to  Bauer's  boats  and  that 
accredited  to  Mr.  Scott  Russell,  but  we  must  not  overlook 
two  other  somewhat  notable  inventions  which  were  brought 
forward  in  the  year  1855.  In  this  country  there  was  Babbage's 
submarine,  which  was,  in  point  of  fact,  merely  an  elongated 
diving-bell.  Instead  of  being  circular  it  was  12  feet  long, 
5  high  and  3  wide.  It  was  to  be  fitted  with  some  means  of 
propulsion  by  hand,  and  water-ballast  tanks  ran  round  the 
lower  edge.  Like  other  diving-bells,  it  was  open  at  the  bottom, 
and  when  experimented  with  was  moved  by  means  of  a 
hawser  or  long  rope  anchored  at  one  end  and  passing  over 
a  drum  in  the  centre  of  the  vessel.  Thick  glass  scuttles 
admitted  a  certain  amount  of  light,  and  divers  issuing  from 
the  boat  were  to  place  torpedoes  below  or  in  contact  with  the 
ship  to  be  attacked.  It  was  a  quaint  and  rather  ingenious 
adaptation  of  the  long-known  principle  of  the  diving-bell, 
but  it  never  achieved  any  success,  and  was  probably  sold  for 
old  copper. 

In  France  MM.  Vilcoq  and  Deschamps  produced  a  little 
boat  only  intended  to  carry  one  man.  It  had  the  peculiarity 
that  he  wore  a  kind  of  diver's  helmet  and  drew  his  supply 
of  fresh  air  direct  from  reservoirs  with  which  he  was  con- 
nected by  flexible  tubing.  After  he  had  breathed  it,  the  air 
passed  out  again  into  the  body  of  the  boat.  It  was  built 
of  copper  with  a  dome  amidships  provided  with  strong  glass 
scuttles  and  surrounded  outside  with  a  kind  of  shelf  on  which 
lay  the  various  tools  which  the  navigator  might  require  to 
make  use  of  in  his  mining  operations.  He  sat  with  his  head 
in  this  dome  and  with  his  arms  thrust  into  long  flexible  gloves- 
which  permitted  him  to  use  them  outside  the  vessel  while 
with  his  feet  he  worked  the  pedals  which  turned  the  propeller. 
It  was  a  well-thought-out  little  vessel,  but  too  small  to  have 
come  into  general  and  practical  use.  One  of  the  inventors — 
Deschamps — made  a  second  attempt  to  solve  the  problem 
of  submarine  navigation  with  a  very  similar  boat  in  1860. 


WILHELM    BAUER  93 

But  in  attempting  to  raise  a  sunken  vessel  in  the  River  Seine 
he  was  badly  hurt,  and  narrowly  escaped  losing  both  his  life 
and  his  submarine. 

Conseil  'of  Havre  is  the  next  inventor  who  actually 
carried  out  trials  with  a  submarine  of  his  own  invention. 
They  were  not  altogether  successful  according  to  the 
report  of  Admiral  Bouet-Willaumez,  Captain  Bourgeois,  and 
Engineer  Mangin,  who  were  present  at  its  trials  on  the  Seine 
between  the  Pont  Saint-Michel  and  the  lock  de  la  Monnaie. 
Its  horizontal  rudders  enabled  it  to  plunge  and  rise  fairly 
efficiently,  but  when  submerged  the  inventor,  who  was  on 
board,  seemed  to  have  no  control  over  its  direction.  Its 
propeller  was  driven  by  a  set  of  cranks  turned  by  six  men. 
The  boat  weighed  3  tons,  and  had  no  particular  features  of 
interest.  Its  speed  was  perfectly  tortoise-like — not  more 
than  one  and  a  half  knots  an  hour  could  be  got  out  of  it. 
Conseil  could  not  help  recognising  the  defects  of  his  boat, 
but,  nothing  daunted,  set  to  work  to  build  another  and  an  im- 
proved edition  of  it.  It  was  also  bigger,  and,  remembering  the 
feeble  speed  of  his  former  boat,  he  cast  about  to  find  a  more 
powerful  means  of  propulsion  than  hand-driven  mechanism. 
He  eventually  hit  upon  a  turbine  engine,  but  it  was  a  very 
different  affair  from  the  powerful  and  perfected  turbines  with 
which  we  are  familiar  to-day.  Not  to  put  too  fine  a  point 
on  it,  ConseiPs  notion  was  an  entirely  impracticable  one. 
His  turbine  was  to  be  turned,  not  by  steam,  but  by  water 
coming  down  a  pipe  from  the  surface  of  the  water  in  which 
the  boat  was  navigating.  It  could  therefore  only  be  used 
when  the  boat  was  well  beneath  the  surface,  and  unless  the 
water  could  be  pumped  out  of  the  boat  as  rapidly  as  it  came 
in,  it  would  be  swamped.  But  to  do  this  would  require 
much  more  "  man-power  "  than  was  necessary  to  drive  the 
boat  along. 

In  the  same  year  that  these  futile  attempts  were  being 
carried  out  in  France,  the  Ictineo  ("Fish-boat"),  invented  by 


94  THE   STORY   OF    THE   SUBMARINE 

Senhor  Narciso  Monturiol,  was  being  experimented  with  at 
Barcelona  with  excellent  results,  if  we  may  believe  the  various 
accounts  that  were  published  at  the  time.  She  is  said  to  have 
been  provided  with  a  battery  of  under- water  cannon  and  to  have 
made  excellent  practice  with  them  at  the  bottoms  of  vessels, 
while  a  formidable  steam-driven  auger  at  the  bows  recalled  the 
methods  of  mediaeval  under-water  attack.  But  it  is  believed 
that  both  guns  and  auger  existed  only  in  the  imagination  of 
the  journalists  of  the  period.  The  Ictineo  is  said  to  have 
been  tried  more  than  sixty  times,  and  to  have  been  able  to 
manoeuvre  in  fifty  feet  of  water  as  easily  as  on  the  surface. 
A  special  apparatus  manufactured  oxygen  as  fast  as  it  was 
wanted,  so  that  a  crew  of  ten  men  were  able  to  remain 
below  water  for  five  hours  at  a  stretch.  But  although  these 
numerous  trials  ought,  one  would  think,  to  have  proved 
the  efficiency  of  Monturiol's  invention,  it  seems  to  have 
come  to  nothing  in  the  end,  like  so  many  others.  The  fact  is 
that  until  the  evolution  of  electrical  and  internal-combustion 
motors,  the  designers  of  submarine  craft  were  hopelessly 
handicapped  by  the  difficulty  of  propulsion.  But  they 
had  to  struggle  on  without  them  for  a  good  many  years  after 
this. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

1860-1864 


CHAPTER   VIII 

1860-1864 

Villeroi's  submarine  for  the  United  States  Government, — The  sub- 
marine built  by  Admiral  Bourgeois  and  Engineer  Brun — Her 
Trials— Alstitt's  submarine — The  Confederate  Davids — The 
Attack  on  the  New  Ironsides — Hunley's  David. 

THE  decade  upon  which  we  are  now  entering  has  no  very 
great  advances  to  show  in  the  construction  and  evolution 
of  submarine  vessels.  But  attempts  were  made,  with  more 
or  less  good  results,  to  introduce  steam  and  electricity  as 
modes  of  propulsion.  It  is  noteworthy,  too,  for  the  great  use 
of  submarine  mines  and  torpedoes  in  the  Civil  War  in  America, 
during  which,  also,  various  submarine  craft  were  built  and 
made  use  of  on  more  than  one  occasion  during  the  progress 
of  hostilities.  The  mines  and  torpedoes  that  were  employed 
scored  many  successes.  No  less  than  seven  armour-clads 
and  a  dozen  other  vessels  were  destroyed  by  means  of  these 
devices  at  one  time  and  another,  but  only  one  single  vessel, 
the  Federal  corvette  Housatanic,  was  sunk  by  a  submarine, 
so  far  as  is  known,  and  on  this  occasion  the  attacking  boat 
shared  the  fate  of  her  victim.  Many  more  or  less  futile 
attempts  were  made,  especially  by  the  Southerners,  to  employ 
submarine  torpedo-boats  in  the  attack  on  their  enemy's 
ships  of  war,  which  will  be  related  in  due  course ;  but  before 
doing  so  it  will  be  necessary  to  glance  at  one  or  two  vessels 
of  this  class  which  were  constructed  by  French  inventors 
and  which  took  no  part  in  the  war. 

We  have  already  had  occasion  to  refer  in  a  former  chapter 

97  7 


98  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

to  a  submarine  that  was  invented  by  M.  Villeroi  in  1832 
and  experimented  with  in  1835  with  rather  promising  results, 
Now  in  1862,  thirty  years  later,  this  inventor  again  appears 
on  the  scene.  This  time  his  boat  was  built  to  the  order  of 
the  United  States  Government,  who  probably  intended  to 
make  use  of  it  against  the  Confederate  flotillas  which  were 
giving  their  navy  so  much  trouble  in  the  War  of  Secession, 
which  had  broken  out  the  year  previous.  Villeroi's  new 
submarine  was  very  much  larger  than  his  early  craft.  She 
was  built  at  Philadelphia,  and  was  35  feet  long  and  had  a 
diameter  of  3  feet  9  inches.  Her  shape  was  cylindrical  with 
a  pointed  bow  and  rounded  stern.  There  were  several  curious 
points  about  this  vessel.  Among  others  we  may  note  the 
two  huge  copper  buoys  which,  carried  in  deep  wells  or  recesses 
at  either  end  of  the  vessel,  could  be  sent  up  to  the  surface, 
where  they  assisted  to  support  the  submarine  at  varying 
depths.  Then  there  was  a  peculiar  system  of  propulsion. 
Eight  men,  seated  in  the  centre  portion  of  the  boat,  each 
manipulated  a  pair  of  folding  oars  or  sculls.  This  proved 
very  unsatisfactory,  and  eventually  a  hand-turned  propeller 
was  substituted.  There  was  a  closed  chamber  right  forward 
which  enabled  divers  to  enter  and  quit  the  vessel,  and  just 
abaft  of  this  was  a  little  dome  which  served  as  a  conning-tower 
for  the  commander  of  the  vessel.  Villeroi  intended  to  equip 
his  new  submarine  with  quite  an  array  of  offensive  weapons, 
including  the  time-honoured  auger.  In  addition  to  this 
mediaeval  device,  a  loaded  cannon  was  to  be  placed  outside 
the  hull  on  each  side  of  the  conning-tower,  and  on  either  bow 
was  a  series  of  saw-edged  horizontal  fins  which  the  inventor 
imagined  might  cut  gashes  in  the  bottom  of  an  enemy's  ship 
as  the  submarine  scraped  along  against  it.  But  as  the  boat 
proved  a  complete  failure  when  she  came  to  be  tried,  this 
remarkable  armoury  was  not  fitted.  She  finished  her  career 
off  Cape  Hatteras,  where  she  foundered  in  a  gale  of  wind. 
It  may  have  been  noticed  that  the  inventors  of  under- water 


IN    THE    AMERICAN    CIVIL   WAR  99 

vessels  have  almost  always  been  civilians.  There  were  one 
or  two  exceptions — William  Bourne,  who  had  served  in  the 
Elizabethan  Navy,  for  one,  and  Johnson,  the  ex-naval  officer 
and  smuggler,  for  another.  It  is  possible  that  this  fact  may 
have  had  something  to  do  with  their  general  want  of  final 
success.  Familiarity  with  the  ever-changing  ocean  must  go 
for  something  in  the  attempt  to  design  a  new  type  of  vessel, 
whether  for  use  above  or  below  water.  But  in  the  early  'sixties 
an  experienced  French  naval  officer,  Captain  Bourgeois, 
turned  his  attention  to  submarine  navigation.  With  him  was 
associated  M.  Brun,  a  naval  engineer.  Here,  then,  we  have 


BOURGEOIS    AND    BBUN'S    "  PLONGEUR,"   1863. 

a  combination  of  talent  that  should  go  some  way  towards 
success.  And  so  it  did.  The  under- water  boat  that  these 
two  officers  constructed,  if  not  doing  everything  that  was 
expected  of  it,  yet  was  a  great  step  in  advance  of  anything 
that  had  hitherto  been  built,  and  the  experiments  that  were 
carried  out  with  her  were  of  very  great  assistance  to  those  who 
had  given  themselves  up  to  the  study  of  submarine  navigation. 
The  Bourgeois-Brun  boat  was  launched  at  Rochefort  on 
April  16, 1863.  She  had  been  nearly  three  years  building,  and 
was  constructed  entirely  of  sheet  iron.  In  shape  the  Plangeur, 
as  she  was  called,  was  not  unlike  a  cigar  with  the  upper  side 
very  much  flattened,  so  that  amidships  her  cross-section 
was  that  of  an  ordinary,  but  rather  shallow,  boat.  She  was 
driven  by  an  80-h.p.  engine,  actuated  by  compressed  air 


100          THE   STORY   OF   THE   SUBMARINE 

carried  in  a  number  of  horizontal  tubular  reservoirs.  *  Below 
these  were  other  somewhat  similar  tanks  for  containing  the 
water  required  to  sink  the  boat  to  the  desired  depth.  Along 
the  centre  of  the  upper  part  of  the  Plongeur  was  a  low  super- 
structure or  ridge,  with  a  recess  containing  a  lifeboat,  in 
which  the  crew  could  escape  to  the  surface  in  the  case  of  an 
accident  when  submerged.  This  apparatus  was  tested  and 
found  to  act  very  well.  The  Plongeur's  trials  were  carried 
out  with  the  greatest  caution.  After  a  species  of  preliminary 
canter  at  the  surface  between  Rochefort  and  Charente,  in  which 
she  only  averaged  the  poor  speed  of  three  knots,  the  under- 
water experiments  were  taken  in  hand  in  a  basin  at  the  former 
place.  The  first  time  she  was  submerged  a  big  cylinder  was 
fastened  to  her,  so  that  her  crew  could  regain  the  surface  by 
climbing  up  ladders  fixed  within  it.  The  event  proved  the 
wisdom  of  this  precaution,  for  the  water  burst  open  a  scuttle 
and  poured  into  the  boat.  One  experiment  after  another  was 
carried  out  in  the  basin,  and  with  such  good  results  that  it 
was  determined  to  try  the  boat  in  the  open  sea.  The  trials 
took  place  about  the  middle  of  February  1864,  and  were 
attended  with  a  good  many  mishaps,  and  finally  the  Plongeur 
got  aground  off  Fort  Vaseux.  There  she  had  to  stay  till  the 
next  day,  when  she  was  got  off  without  having  suffered  any 
very  considerable  damage.  But  though  the  Plongeur  in  many 
ways  marked  a  great  step  forward  in  the  evolution  of  the 
submarine,  she  suffered  from  a  want  of  longitudinal  stability. 
That  is  to  say,  that  when  she  was  under  water  she  never  could 
be  got  to  proceed  in  a  line  parallel  to  the  surface.  She  would 
continually  either  dive  or  direct  her  bows  upwards.  Life  on 
board  must  have  been  a  perpetual  see-saw.  This  defect  was 
most  likely  mainly  attributable  to  her  great  length  and 
flatness.  Anyway,  after  a  few  more  trials  in  the  basins  of 
Rochefort  Dockyard,  she  was  given  up  as  a  bad  job. 

The  story  of  the  Submarine  now  once  more  takes  us  across 
the  Atlantic  to  America,  the  country  in  which  so  many  under- 


IN    THE    AMERICAN    CIVIL   WAR  101 

water  craft  had  already  been  designed,  and  which  was  to  play 
such  an  important  part  in  their  future  development.  In  the 
early  part  of  1861  the  terrible  and  prolonged  Civil  War  broke 
out  between  the  Secessionist  States  of  the  South  and  the  rest 
of  the  Union.  The  United  States,  from  its  situation  and  con- 
stitution, had  never  been  a  military  country.  Both  army 
and  navy  were  small  in  proportion  to  the  size  and  standing  of 
the  nation.  Both  sides,  therefore,  set  to  work  not  only  to 
raise  men,  but  to  improvise  new  and,  if  possible,  cheap 
methods  of  attack.  The  submarine  at  once  presented  itself 
to  the  belligerents  as  fulfilling  both  of  these  conditions.  The 
United  States  Government,  as  we  have  already  seen,  tried  to 
get  a  practical  boat  built  by  M.  Villeroi,  but  without  success. 
About  the  same  time  another  submarine  was  built  at  Mobile 
by  an  American  of  the  name  of  Alstitt.  It  was  a  peculiar- 
looking  affair,  not  a  bit  resembling  the  fish-like  boats  that  had 
been  constructed  by  other  inventors.  It  was  more  like  the 
hull  of  the  small  ironclad  ram  then  just  coming  into  vogue 
in  our  own  Navy.  It  had  a  steam-engine  for  propulsion  when 
at  the  surface  and  a  couple  of  electric  motors  for  use  when 
submerged.  It  was  to  attack  by  letting  go  buoyant  cases  of 
powder  below  an  enemy's  ship.  Right  forward  it  was  fitted 
with  a  big  horizontal  rudder,  to  enable  it  to  dive  or  rise  at 
will.  This,  however,  did  not  do  what  was  expected  of  it,  and 
it  is  pretty  evident  that  the  boat  was  an  absolute  failure. 
Had  it  not  been  so,  we  should  certainly  have  heard  of  its  use 
in  the  war  then  raging.  As  it  was,  it  passed  quietly  into 
oblivion. 

If  the  North  entertained  the  idea  of  using  the  submarine 
to  attack  the  Southerners,  the  latter  were  no  less  determined 
to  use  the  same  means  to  destroy  the  ships  of  their  enemy 
which  were  keeping  Charleston  so  closely  blockaded.  They 
remembered  the  story  of  David  and  Goliath  of  Gath,  and  so 
christened  the  various  submarines  they  constructed  "  Davids," 
in  the  hope  that  they  would  treat  the  Federal  ironclads  in  the 


102  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

same  way  that  the  shepherd  boy  of  Scripture  dealt  with  the 
Philistine  giant. 

Their  first  boats  were  hardly  true  submarines.  They 
began  by  cutting  down  a  gunboat  at  Charleston  and  turning 
it  into  a  partially  submerged  torpedo-boat.  The  Wabash 
was  approached  by  some  queer-looking  craft  in  April  1864, 
which  disappeared  when  she  slipped  her  cable  and  opened 
fire.  Mr.  H.  W.  Wilson,  in  his  "  Ironclads  in  Action,"  suggests 
that  it  may  have  been  this  vessel.  But  it  is  at  least  as  likely 
to  have  been  the  David  which  attacked  the  ironclad  New 
Ironsides  on  October  5,  1863,  and  which  we  are  now  about 
to  describe.  This  was  one  of  several  similar  boats  that  were 


A    CONFEDERATE    "  DAVID,"    1863. 

constructed  about  this  time,  and  of  which  eight  were  found 
by  the  Federals  when  Charleston  surrendered.  She  was  shaped 
very  much  like  a  cigar,  and  was  about  50  feet  long  and  9  feet 
in  diameter  amidships.  Though  they  had  the  appearance  of 
submarines,  it  is  doubtful  whether  these  boats  were  ever 
intended  to  go  entirely  under  water.  They  do  not  seem  to 
have  been  provided  with  horizontal  rudders,  and  they  were 
driven  by  an  ordinary  steam-engine  with  a  funnel,  which, 
however,  was  telescopic  and  could  be  reduced  very  considerably 
in  height  in  order  to  avoid  observation.  Moreover,  these 
vessels  always  attacked  in  an  awash  position,  and  it  seems 
likely  that  this  method  of  approach  was  the  one  intended  for 
them. 

The  New  Ironsides  was  (for   those   days)    a   big,  hulking 
monster  with  sloping  flanks,  carrying  ten  big  guns  a    side. 


IN    THE    AMERICAN   CIVIL   WAR  103 

She  lay  at  anchor  in  the  middle  of  the  blockading  squadron. 
In  addition  to  her  material  strength,  her  crew  contained  the 
most  efficient  gunners  in  the  Federal  fleet,  and  she  was 
naturally  the  object  of  many  attempts  on  the  part  of  the 
Confederates.  On6  of  these  was  made,  as  we  have  already 
observed,  on  October  5,  1863.  The  crew  of  the  David,  which 
was  lying  off  Morris  Island,  consisted  entirely  of  volunteers. 
She  was  commanded  by  Lieutenant  Glassell,  and  with  him 
were  Captain  Stoney  as  chief  officer,  and  an  engineer  named 
Tombs.  At  9.15  p.m.,  by  which  time  it  was  pretty  dark,  the 
little  craft  got  under  way.  Only  a  small  portion  amidships 
appeared  above  water.  At  the  bow  was  a  long  spar  or  pole, 
carrying  a  torpedo  containing  sixty  pounds  of  gunpowder  at 
the  end.  Glassell's  orders  were  to  destroy  as  many  of  the 
Federal  ironclads  as  he  could,  but  as  he  only  seems  to  have 
been  provided  with  a  single  spar  torpedo  it  is  difficult  to  see 
how  he  could  have  hoped  to  damage  more  than  one.  Any- 
way, the  New  Ironsides  was  his  first  objective.  The  David  was 
capable  of  steaming  at  seven  knots  an  hour,  but  it  is  probable 
that  she  approached  her  prey  much  more  slowly  than  this. 
At  full  speed  the  noise  of  her  engines,  and  possibly  sparks  from 
her  funnel,  might  have  betrayed  her.  As  it  was,  she  was  not 
heard  at  all,  but  was  suddenly  observed  floating  in  the  dark 
water  by  the  look-outs  on  board  the  Ironsides.  She  was 
quite  near  then,  and  they  were  not  sure  whether  she  was  not 
a  plank  floating  on  the  sea.  She  had  gone  round  outside 
the  fleet,  and  came  in  from  seaward.  Lieutenant  Howard,  the 
officer  of  the  watch,  guessed  at  once  what  she  was.  But  he 
thought  they  might  as  well  hail  the  mysterious  object,  and 
"  Boat  ahoy  !  "  rang  out  into  the  silence  of  the  night.  The 
answer  was  a  sparkle  of  musketry  from  the  coamings  of 
the  David,  and  Howard  fell  mortally  wounded.  Before  the 
Ironsides  could  open  fire  in  reply,  the  torpedo  touched  her  side. 
There  was  a  terrible  crash,  the  ship  trembled  from  stem  to 
stern,  and  an  enormous  column  of  water  soared  aloft  to  fall 


104          THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

in  a  deluge  upon  her  decks.  So  severe  was  the  shock  that  one 
of  her  crew  had  his  leg  broken.  The  Ironsides,  unable  to  use 
her  big  guns  at  so  close  a  range,  now  opened  a  heavy  musketry 
fire  on  the  David,  which  was  kept  up  as  long  as  she  could  be 
distinguished  in  the  darkness,  which  was  only  a  very  few 
moments.  A  subsequent  examination  proved  that  the 
David's  bark  was  worse  than  its  bite.  The  torpedo  had  failed 
to  injure  the  armourclad.  What  had  happened  to  the  assail- 
ant ?  When  the  explosion  took  place  every  one  on  board 
thought  they  were  going  to  be  swamped.  Overboard  they 
went,  headed  by  their  commanding  officer,  who  was  eventually 
picked  up  by  a  Northern  coal  schooner.  Another  of  her  crew 
got  on  board  the  Ironsides.  Tombs  the  engineer,  looked 
round,  and  seeing  that  the  David  was  still  afloat,  swam  back 
to  her  and  found  the  pilot,  who  was  unable  to  swim,  clinging 
to  her  gunwale.  They  both  got  on  board  and  contrived  to 
navigate  her  back  to  Charleston  in  safety,  although  a  couple 
of  Federal  monitors  had  started  in  pursuit,  aided  by  boats 
lowered  by  the  New  Ironsides. 

The  Confederates  now  determined  to  have  a  regular  sub- 
marine boat  with  which  an  attack  could  be  made  actually 
under  water.  A  craft  of  this  kind  was  accordingly  taken  in 
hand  by  Captains  Hunley  and  McClintock  and  built  at  New 
Orleans.  Before  they  could  get  it  away  the  city  was  taken 
by  the  Federals,  whereupon  its  builders  sank  it  lest  it  should 
fall  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  Many  years  afterwards  she 
was  recovered  intact. 

Her  constructors  got  away  to  Mobile,  where  they  set  to 
work  on  another  submarine  which  was  practically  a  replica 
of  the  first.  She  was  25  feet  long,  5  feet  wide,  and  6  feet  high. 
She  was  towed  round  to  Fort  Morgan  en  route  to  attack  the 
blockading  squadron  off  Charleston.  Unluckily  bad  weather 
came  [on,  and  the  new  submarine  foundered.  Her  crew 
escaped.  Undeterred  by  such  constant  ill-luck,  the  Confeder- 
ates got  a  third  boat  built  at  Mobile,  whence  she  was  brought 


IN    THE    AMERICAN   CIVIL   WAR  105 

overland  to  Charleston.  This  boat  also  bore  a  strong  resem- 
blance to  Hunley's  first  submarine,  but  was  60  feet  long, 
elliptical  in  transverse  section,  and  carried  a  crew  of  nine  men. 
Eight  of  these  propelled  the  vessel  by  operating  cranks  on  the 
screw  shaft ;  the  ninth  was  the  pilot.  The  first  idea  was  to  take 
her  below  an  enemy's  ship,  towing  a  mine  behind  her  at  such  a 
depth  below  the  surface  that  it  would  strike  the  vessel's  bottom 
and  explode  on  contact,  but  eventually  she  was  fitted  with  a 
spar  torpedo.  There  were  no  arrangements  for  renewing  the 
air,  so  that  with  her  comparatively  large  crew  she  could  not 
expect  to  remain  long  under  water.  She  was  built  of  boiler 
iron,  and  ingress  was  obtained  by  a  couple  of  circular  man- 
holes, or  hatches,  in  the  upper  surface.  In  the  next  chapter 
we  shall  see  how  far  she  fulfilled  the  projects  of  her  designers. 


CHAPTER   IX 

1864-1870 


107 


CHAPTER   IX 

1864-1870 

The  Disastrous  Trials  of  Hunley's  David — Drowns  Crew  after  Crew — 
Sinks  the  Housatonic  and  goes*  down  with  her — Herr  Flach's 
submarine  and  her  fate  off  Valparaiso. 

THE  new  David  proved  herself  to  be  a  very  deadly  weapon — 
to  her  friends.  Before  she  came  in  contact  with  the  enemy 
she  had  drowned  no  less  than  thirty-five  men.  Her  first 
commander  was  Lieutenant  Paine,  who  took  her  out  for  a 
preliminary  cruise  off  Charleston.  She  was  in  the  awash 
position  with  her  manholes  open,  with  the  result  that  she  was 
swamped  by  the  swell  raised  by  a  paddle  steamer  which 
passed  close  by  without  noticing  the  little  submarine.  Paine 
was  looking  out  of  one  of  the  hatches  and  managed  to  escape, 
but  his  crew  of  eight  went  down  in  the  boat  and  were  all 
drowned.  She  was  fished  up  and  prepared  for  further  trials. 
There  seems  to  have  been  a  great  reluctance  to  try  her  actually 
under  water,  or  even  with  her  manholes  closed,  so  that  the 
same  accident  took  place  over  again,  the  only  difference  being 
that  she  was  swamped  by  a  sudden  squall  instead  of  by  the 
wash  of  a  steamer.  Again  Paine  escaped,  and  with  him  a 
couple  of  his  men,  who  just  managed  to  scramble  out  in  time. 
Again  she  was  brought  to  the  surface,  and  again  she  capsized 
just  off  Fort  Sumter,  where  she  was  lying  at  anchor.  Three 
men  escaped  besides  Lieutenant  Paine,  who  does  not  seem  to 
have  been  born  to  be  drowned.  Paine  was  about  "  full  up  "  of 
the  boat  by  this  time,  and  no  wonder !  so  that  when  she  was 
raised  a  third  time,  he  handed  over  the  command  to  one  of  her 

109 


110          THE    STOEY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

constructors.  A  fourth  crew  of  eight  men  was  found  for  her, 
and  brave  fellows  they  must  have  been  to  adventure  themselves 
in  such  a  coffin.  And  a  coffin  she  proved  to  them  also.  They 
took  her  up  the  Cooper  River,  where  she  foundered  in  deep 
water,  drowning  the  whole  nine  of  her  occupants.  The  actual 
cause  of  this  catastrophe  is  not  clear.  There  was  no  one  left 
to  tell  the  tale. 

It  seems  hardly  credible  that  yet  another  crew  should  have 
been  forthcoming  for  these  deadly  experiments  with  a  boat 
that,  so  far,  seems  to  have  fully  demonstrated  her  unsea- 
worthiness, but  she  was  once  more  brought  to  the  surface, 
manned,  and  prepared  to  again  tempt  Providence.  This  time 
she  varied  her  performances  by  fouling  the  cable  of  a  ship  at 
anchor.  But  the  result  was  the  same.  Down  she  went  like  a 
tin  pot.  Seven  of  her  crew  lost  their  lives  on  this  occasion. 
When  she  was  got  afloat  again  for  the  fifth  time,  the  Confeder- 
ates evidently  came  to  the  conclusion  that  as  she  did  nothing 
but  sink  she  might  just  as  well  sink  alongside  a  torpedoed 
enemy.  As  a  matter  of  fact  this  is  what  actually  happened. 
There  was  a  fine  new  Federal  corvette,  the  Housatonic,  lying 
outside  the  bar  off  Charleston  harbour,  and  it  was  determined 
that  she  should  be  the  object  of  attack.  On  this  occasion  the 
David  went  out  short-handed.  Besides  Lieutenant  Dixon  of  the 
21st  Infantry,  who  went  in  command,  there  were  only  Captain 
Carlson,  another  military  officer,  and  five  men  on  board. 
One  can  well  imagine  that  by  this  time  volunteers  were  in- 
clined to  fight  shy  of  the  v  ssel  which  had  entombed  so  many 
fine  seamen.  However,  on  the  night  of  February  17,  1864, 
she  set  out  on  her  last  voyage. 

The  Federals  were  aware  that  their  opponents  were  ex- 
perimenting somewhat  largely  with  submarine  vessels,  and 
only  a  month  before  this  the  Minister  for  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment at  Washington  had  written  a  special  letter  of  warning 
to  Vice- Admiral  Dahlgren,  who  was  in  command  of  the  block- 
ading fleet  off  Charleston,  telling  him  that  he  had  information 


IN   THE   AMERICAN   CIVIL   WAR  111 

that  the  Confederates  had  become  possessed  of  a  new  vessel 
so  formidable  that  it  was  capable  of  destroying  the  whole  of 
the  ships  under  his  orders.  Descriptions  of  the  various 
torpedo  craft  belonging  to  the  Southerners  in  Charleston  were 
enclosed,  together  with  a  set  of  suggestions  as  to  the  best  way 
of  parrying  or  defeating  their  attacks.  The  Admiral  naturally 
considered  that  the  ironclads  lying  inshore  would  be  the 
most  likely  ships  to  be  attacked,  but  he  circulated  a  general 
warning  to  the  whole  of  the  ships  employed  on  the  blockade 
that  they  should  take  every  precaution  against  being  surprised, 
and  should  make  every  preparation  to  beat  off  a  torpedo 


THE    BOAT   THAT    SANK    THE    "  HOUSATONIC,"    1864. 

attack.  The  Confederates,  on  their  part,  calculated  that  the 
ships  lying  furthest  outside  would  be  hardly  likely  to  appre- 
hend attack,  and  therefore  would  be  the  easiest  to  surprise ; 
and  they  therefore  carried  out  the  same  manoeuvre  as  they 
did  in  the  case  of  the  New  Ironsides,  and,  getting  the 
David  over  the  bar,  sent  her  round  to  attack  the  Housatonic 
from  seaward. 

The  February  nights  were  dark,  and  she  got  within  a 
hundred  yards  of  her  obj  ective  before  she  was  discovered 
by  the  officer  of  the  watch  on  board  the  Housatonic, 
Lieutenant  M.  J.  K.  Crosby.  It  was  the  old  story.  Some- 
thing was  seen  "  like  a  plank  floating  in  the  water."  It  must 
be  observed  that  even  now,  when  actually  carrying  out  an 
attack,  and  after  all  her  previous  disastrous  experiences,  the 
David  was  being  navigated  in  an  "  awash  "  position  and  not 


112          THE   STORY   OF   THE    SUBMARINE 

under  water,  as  she  should  have  been.     The  fact  is  that  the 
crew  refused  to  have  the  hatches  shut  down. 

It  was  a  quarter  to  nine  when  she  was  discovered.  The 
Housatonic  at  once  beat  to  quarters,  slipped  her  cables,  and 
went  astern.  But  there  was  no  time  to  escape  the  impending 
blow.  Two  minutes  after  the  David  was  discovered  she  was 
alongside.  She  was  equipped  with  a  spar  torpedo  loaded  with 
a  hundred  pounds  of  powder,  and  as  the  Housatonic' 's  guns 
could  not  be  depressed  sufficiently  to  touch  her,  Dixon  was 
able  to  choose  the  exact  spot  where  he  considered  his 
torpedo  would  be  most  effective.  This  was  just  forward 
of  the  mainmast  on  the  starboard  side  in  line  with  the  maga- 
zine, of  the  situation  of  which  he  was  probably  aware. 
Then  came  a  stunning  explosion,  the  unfortunate  Housatonic 
trembled  all  over  as  she  lifted  on  the  top  of  an  immense  wave, 
and  immediately  began  to  settle  down  stern  foremost,  heeling 
over  to  port  as  she  sank. 

And  what  of  the  David  ?  We  can  imagine  the  tense  feeling 
on  board  when,  to  the  quiet  wash  and  tinkle  of  the  water  along 
her  thin  coamings  and  the  subdued  murmur  of  her  simple 
machinery  as  the  crew  hove  round  on  the  crank  shaft,  suc- 
ceeded the  loud  roll  of  the  Housatonic's  drums,  the  shrill 
piping  of  her  boatswains'  whistles,  the  shouting  and  crackle 
of  the  rifle  fire.  There  were  no  lights  on  board,  all  was  pitch 
darkness  save  only  where  the  open  manholes  showed  two 
round  patches  of  the  dim  night  sky.  The  foremost  one  is 
obscured  as  Dixon,  leaning  out,  brings  the  boat  alongside  the 
high  sides  of  the  enemy  and  seeks  for  her  most  vulnerable 
point.  Then  chaos  and  death.  With  the  detonation  of  the 
torpedo  came  the  inrush  of  water.  Boat  and  crew  were 
doomed  and  went  to  the  bottom  with  their  victim,  the  nose 
of  the  boat  jammed  in  the  hole  the  explosion  had  made.  On 
board  the  sinking  Housatonic  all  was  confusion  and  panic. 
Captain  Pickering,  her  commander,  had  been  stunned  and 
bruised  by  the  concussion,  and  it  was  a  case  of  every  man  for 


THE    SINKING    OF   THE    "  HOUSATONIC.' 


p.  112] 


IN    THE   AMERICAN   CIVIL   WAR  113 

himself.  All  hands  made  for  the  rigging  as  she  sank,  but 
some  of  the  more  self-possessed  of  the  crew  contrived  to  get 
one  of  the  boats  afloat  and  pulled  off  to  the  Canandaigua,  which 
l.iy  near  by,  in  search  of  assistance.  This  was  promptly 
rendered,  so  that,  according  to  the  report  of  Lieutenant  Higgin- 
son,  who  was  left  in  command  of  the  Housatonic  on  the  dis- 
ablement of  her  captain,  the  whole  crew  was  saved  with  the 
exception  of  Ensign  Hazeltine,  Mr.  Muzzy,  the  captain's  clerk, 
John  Williams,  a  quartermaster,  and  Thomas  Parker  and  John 
Welsh,  seamen  gunners.  These  five  went  down  in  the  ill- 
fated  ship. 

The  loss  of  the  Housatonic  naturally  created  a  great  sensa- 
tion in  the  Federal  fleet,  and  Admiral  Dahlgren  at  once  wrote 
to  the  Government  to  propose  that  a  reward  of  £4,000  or  even 
£6,000  should  be  offered  for  every  David  captured.  Nothing 
seems  to  have  come  of  this,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  no  more 
of  the  Federal  ships  were  destroyed  by  submarines  so  far  as 
is  known. 

The  late  Admiral  Hobart  Pasha  gives  an  account  of  an 
attack  made  by  one  of  the  cigar-shaped  Confederate  Davids 
which  were  described  in  the  last  chapter.1  The  name  of 
the  ship  attacked  does  not  appear.  Very  possibly  it  was 
the  Minnesota,  as  it  is  said  she  was  to  have  been  attacked 
at  the  same  time  as  the  New  Ironsides.  If  this  should  have 
been  so,  there  must  have  been  more  than  one  David  out  on  the 
warpath  that  evening.  "  I  remember  on  one  occasion  during 
the  war,"  writes  the  gallant  Admiral,  "  when  I  was  at  Charles- 
ton, meeting  in  a  coffee-room  at  that  place  a  young  naval 
officer  (a  Southerner)  with  whom  I  got  into  conversation. 
He  told  me  that  that  night  he  was  going  to  sink  a  Northern 
man-of-war  which  was  blockading  the  port,  and  invited  me 
to  see  him  off.  I  accompanied  him  down  to  his  cigar-boat, 
as  he  called  it,  and  found  that  she  was  a  vessel  about  40 
feet  long,  shaped  like  a  cigar,  on  the  bow  of  which  was  placed 
1  Quoted  by  Mr.  Herbert  Fyfe  in  "  Submarine  Warfare." 

8 


114          THE   STORY   OF   THE   SUBMARINE 

a  torpedo.  On  his  stepping  on  board  with  his  crew  of  four 
men,  his  boat  was  immersed  till  nothing  but  a  small  piece  of 
funnel  was  visible.  He  moved  off  into  the  darkness  at  no 
great  speed — say  at  about  five  miles  an  hour. 

"  The  next  evening,  on  visiting  the  coffee-house,  I  found  my 
friend  sitting  quietly  smoking  his  pipe.  He  told  me  that  he  had 
succeeded  in  making  a  hole  in  the  frigate  which  he  had  attacked 
— which  vessel  could,  in  fact,  be  seen  lying  in  shallow  water 
some  seven  miles  off,  careened  over  to  repair  damages.  But 
he  said  that,  on  the  concussion  made  by  firing  the  torpedo,  the 
water  had  rushed  in  through  the  hatches  of  his  boat  and  she 
had  sunk  to  the  bottom.  All  his  men  were  drowned.  He 
said  he  didn't  know  how  he  escaped  himself,  but  he  fancied 
that  he  came  up  through  the  hatches,  as  he  found  himself 
floating  about,  and  swam  on  shore." 

The  Federals  about  this  time  again  took  in  hand  the 
subject  of  under- water  attack;  but,  having  apparently  given 
up  the  submarime  proper  as  a  bad  job,  contented  them- 
selves with  building  three  semi-submarine  vessels  which 
by  the  admission  of  water  into  ballast  tanks  could  be 
brought  to  an  awash  position  and  so  would  present  a  smaller 
target  to  the  enemy's  guns.  These  vessels  were  the  Stromboli, 
Spuyten  Duivel,  and  KeokuL  The  first  two  were  fitted  with 
torpedo  apparatus,  and  the  Stromboli  was  sent  down  to 
Hampton  Roads  in  November  1864  for  the  express  purpose 
of  attempting  to  blow  up  the  Confederate  ironclads.  She  does 
not,  however,  appear  to  have  damaged  any  of  them.  The 
Keokuk  was  merely  a  double-turreted  monitor  not  carrying 
any  torpedoes.  These  three  ships  will  be  described  farther  on 
in  the  chapter  specially  devoted  to  "  Semi-Submarines." 

The  remainder  of  the  'sixties  was  not  signalised  by  the 
production  of  many  new  types  of  submarine.  The  events  of 
the  War  of  Secession  in  America  had  not  gone  far  to  demon- 
strate either  their  practicability  or  their  efficiency.  Flach's 
submarine,  which  was  constructed  at  Valparaiso  in  1866,  is  of 


IN   THE   AMERICAN   CIVIL   WAR 


115 


considerable  interest.  She  was  designed  for  the  purpose  of 
raising  the  blockade  which  was  being  carried  out  by  the 
Spanish  fleet,  war  having  broken  out  between  Spain  and  her 
former  colonies,  Chili  and  Peru.  Her  inventor  and  constructor, 
Herr  Flach,  was  a  German  settled  in  Valparaiso,  and  he  evinced 
the  greatest  confidence  in  his  invention.  The  boat  was  made 
of  sheet  iron  and  was  more  or  less  cylindrical  with  cone-like 
ends  sloping  away  more  at  the  under  part  than  the  upper. 
She  was  40  leet  long  with  a  diameter  of  8  feet,  and 
provided  with  twin  screws.  The  only  motive  agency  being 


FLACH'S  SUBMARINE,  1866. 

hand  power,  her  progress  was  necessarily  slow — only  three 
or  four  knots  an  hour.  Inside  the  boat  were  four  large 
cylinders  containing  compressed  air,  besides  a  smaller  one 
charged  with  oxygen  for  purifying  the  foul  air  when  necessary. 
She  was  provided  with  a  series  of  detachable  safety-weights, 
fourteen  in  number,  which  formed  a  kind  of  keel.  She  was 
so  balanced  that  she  only  just  floated,  so  that  the  turning  of  a 
couple  of  small  horizontal  fins  was  sufficient  to  make  her  dive. 
Her  armament  consisted  of  a  small  rifled  gun  mounted  on  deck 
for  above- water  use  and  a  species  of  breech-loading  mortar 
built  into  the  bows  firing  a  forty-pound  projectile.  Flach's 
scheme  was  to  get  close  to  the  ship  to  be  attacked  and  fire  this 


116          THE    STORY   OF   THE   SUBMARINE 

gun  into  her  bottom.  This  peculiar  weapon  was  fitted  with 
a  species  of  cap  which  could  be  placed  in  position  while  the 
gun  was  being  loaded  and  removed  just  before  firing.  The 
little  cannon  on  the  outside  of  the  vessel  had  a  kind  of 
dish-cover,  which  fitted  over  it  when  the  boat  was  going 
to  dive. 

Flach  took  her  for  several  trips,  probably  above  water  only, 
and  reported  that  she  had  proved  herself  entirely  satisfactory. 
A  public  demonstration  of  her  capabilities  was  determined  on, 
the  programme  being  that  she  should  dive  and  cross  the  bay, 
which  was  about  five  miles  wide,  below  water.  On  arriving 
at  the  farther  side  she  was  to  come  up,  fire  her  gun,  and  return 
as  a  surface  boat  in  full  view  of  the  spectators.  Herr  Flach 
was  so  confident  in  the  safety  of  his  vessel  that  he  took  with 
him  on  this  occasion  his  son  and  six  others.  But  everybody 
was  npt  of  the  same  opinion.  A  Yankee  skipper  who  was 
present  thought  that  it  would  be  advisable  that  some  connec- 
tion should  be  established  with  the  submarine  when  she  dived , 
and  attempted  to  make  fast  a  line  to  her  without  being 
observed  by  her  inventor.  Flach,  however,  noticed  \vhat  he 
was  doing,  and  slashed  it  through  with  his  knife  just  before 
getting  down  the  hatchway,  whither  the  other  passengers  had 
preceded  him.  He  screwed  fast  the  cover  and  the  fatal  voyage 
began.  The  boat's  propellers  were  seen  to  revolve  and  she 
very  slowly  gathered  way.  Then  her  fins  were  turned  down- 
ward and  she  slid  below  out  of  sight.  The  place  where  she 
was  expected  to  emerge  on  the  far  side  of  the  bay  was  watched 
eagerly  hour  after  hour,  but  darkness  fell  without  any  signs  of 
her.  Then  a  rumour  spread  abroad  that  she  had  come  up  and 
was  now  on  her  way  back  to  port.  But  the  story  soon  proved 
to  be  false,  and  she  was  nowhere  to  be  seen  at  daybreak. 
Nothing  more  was  heard  of  her  till  a  boat  from  H.M.S. 
Leander,  which  was  lying  in  the  bay,  reported  a  continuous 
stream  of  bubbles  coming  up  very  near  the  spot  where  she 
had  made  her  dive.  The  water  was  very  deep  here — nearly 


IN    THE    AMERICAN   CIVIL   WAR  117 

27  fathoms — but  she  was  located,  and  found  to  be  jammed 
hard  and  fast  in  the  mud,  nose  downwards.  There  is  little 
doubt  that  as  soon  as  she  began  to  dive  the  heavy  weight  of 
the  gun  forward  took  charge  and  carried  her  right  down, 
despite  the  feeble  resistance  offered  by  the  little  fins,  which 
doubtless  were  turned  upwards  to  counteract  her  too  sudden 
descent.  With  great  difficulty  ropes  were  made  fast  to  her,  but 
they  proved  unequal  to  the  strain  of  lifting  her.  It  was  then 
determined  by  the  officers  of  the  British  warship  who  had 
undertaken  the  salving  operations,  to  try  and  pass  chain  cables 
round  her.  But  before  this  could  be  carried  out  a  sudden 
summons  arrived  for  the  Leander  to  proceed  instantly  to 
Callao,  where  fighting  was  going  on  between  the  Spanish 
squadron  and  the  forts  and  British  interests  might  be  in 
jeopardy.  There  was  nothing  for  it  but  to  obey  the  order, 
and  the  unfortunate  submarine  had  to  be  left  to  its  fate. 
There  she  lies  with  her  cargo  of  corpses  to  this  day. 

One  more  submarine  remains  to  be  noticed  before  we  quit  the 
decade  ending  in  1869,  if  we  except  the  semi-submarine  iron- 
clad invented  by  Otto  Vogel  in  that  year,  of  which  we  will  treat 
later.  This  is  the  boat  that  was  designed  by  M.  Alexandrow- 
ski,  a  Russian,  and  which  was  built  at  Winan's  shipbuilding 
yard  at  St.  Petersburg  in  1868.  It  is  stated  to  have  had  a 
displacement  of  no  less  than  600  tons,  so  that  it  must  have 
been  a  very  big  affair  for  an  under-water  vessel.  Other 
accounts  say  that  her  displacement  was  not  above  300  tons. 
But  as  she  was  over  120  feet  long,  about  12  feet  wide  and  more 
than  13  feet  deep,  she  was  of  very  considerable  size  at  any 
rate.  Her  cross-section  was  like  a  triangle  with  curved 
sides,  and  she  was  propelled  by  a  pair  of  screws  driven  by 
a  compressed-air  engine  which  gave  her  a  speed  of  6  knots. 
Her  inventor  carried  out  a  good  many  trials  in  her  with 
considerable  success,  including  the  blowing  up  the  hull  of  an 
old  ship  with  a  spar  torpedo.  But  the  Russian  Government 
could  not  make  up  its  mind  to  purchase  the  boat,  and  in  the 


118  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

meanwhile  she  dived  too  deep  and  was  crushed.  She  was 
got  up  again  ;  but  her  career  as  a  submarine  torpedo-boat 
was  at  an  end,  and  henceforward  she  was  relegated  to  the 
inglorious  but  useful  duty  of  serving  as  a  landing  pontoon. 


CHAPTER   X 

1870-1888 


no 


CHAPTER    X 

1870-1888 

Halstead's  Intelligent  Whale— the  first  "  Holland  "  boat— The  Rev. 
G.  W.  Garret's  two  submarines — Drzewiecki's  "  Podascophe  " 
and  her  successor — More  "  Holland  "  boats — Nordenfeldt's  boats 
and  their  trials  at  Landskrona  and  Constantinople — Loss  of 
Nordenfeldt  III  off  Jutland. 

THE  first  submarine  worthy  of  notice  in  the  'seventies  is 
the  one  invented  by  Halstead,  an  American,  and  built  at 
Newark  by  General  Hoxsey.  This  was  in  1872.1  She  was  26 
feet  long  and  9  feet  deep,  and  was  intended  to  carry  a  crew  of 
13  men.  Her  propeller  was  hand-driven,  and  two  doors  were 
fitted  in  her  bottom  by  which  divers  could  leave  her  for  the 
purpose  of  making  fast  a  torpedo  to  an  enemy's  ship  at  anchor. 
She  herself  was  also  at  anchor  when  this  operation  was  going 
on,  so  that  it  would  appear  that  an  attack  could  only  be  made 
when  a  hostile  ship  chose  to  lie  in  very  shallow  water — other- 
wise the  diver  would  not  be  able  to  get  at  her.  Great  difficulty 
was  experienced  in  getting  a  crew  for  her,  till  a  General  Sweeney 
induced  two  others  to  accompany  him  and  took  her  down  in 
16  feet  of  water.  The  General  then  put  on  a  diving  costume 
and  attached  a  torpedo  to  the  bottom  of  a  small  vessel,  which 
was  blown  up  with  great  eclat.  The  United  States  Govern- 
ment then  bought  the  boat  and  carried  out  another  trial,  which 
was  a  dead  failure.  Since  that  time  the  Intelligent  Whale 
has  become  a  "  lion  "  in  Brooklyn  Navy  Yard,  where  it  is 
preserved  as  a  relic  for  the  delectation  of  sightseers. 
1  Her  plans  date  from  1866. 
121 


122 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 


Three  years  later  a  very  important  submarine  invention 
made  its  debut.  This  boat  is  noteworthy  not  on  account  of 
its  size  or  perfections,  but  because  it  was  the  first  of  the  series 
of  submarine  craft  invented  by  John  P.  Holland  and  the  direct 
ancestor  of  the  modern  submarines  in  our  own  and  the  United 
States  navies.  The  first  Holland  was  a  tiny  affair  with  just 
enough  room  in  it  for  one  man  to  sit  down  amidships  and 
work  the  pedals  that  turned  the  propeller.  It  was  only 
16  feet  long,  2  feet  deep,  and  20  inches  wide,  and  it  is  probably 


THE    "  INTELLIGENT   WHALE,"    1872. 

the  very  smallest  submarine  ever  constructed.  The  "  crew  " 
had  to  wear  a  diving-dress  and  drew  air  from  reservoirs  at 
either  end  of  the  vessel.  Five  little  torpedoes  were  carried, 
which  could  be  put  out  through  the  dome  and  fired  from  a 
distance  by  electricity. 

The  Rev.  George  William  Garret,  an  English  clergyman,  is 
responsible  for  the  next  boat  we  have  to  notice.  It  was 
built  at  Liverpool  between  1876  and  1878  and  patented  in 
the  latter  year.  It  was  13  feet  long  and  5  feet  in  diameter, 
almost  like  an  egg  with  very  pointed  ends.  The  propeller 


THE    PROGRESS    OF    INVENTION  123 

was  turned  by  hand,  and  the  boat  brought  to  a  balance 
between  sinking  and  floating  by  letting  water  into  tanks 
at  the  bottom.  In  this  condition  she  could  be  raised  or 
lowered  by  a  very  small  addition  or  diminution  of  weight, 
which  was  effected  by  screwing  a  piston  in  or  out  of  a  cylinder 
whose  outer  end  was  covered  with  gauze  to  prevent  any 
small  objects  in  the  water  getting  in  and  jamming  the  mechan- 
ism. The  inventor  carried  out  his  experiments  in  a  dock  at 
Liverpool,  and  several  times  remained  under  water  for  a  long 
period  at  a  stretch.  In  fact  he  was  so  successful  that  in  1879 


THE    "  HOLLAND   I,"    1875. 

he  had  another  and  a  larger  boat  built.  This  one  was  nearly 
50  feet  long,  and  sheathed  amidships  with  thick  timber.  It  was 
driven  by  a  steam  engine  having  an  extraordinarily  large 
boiler  which  occupied  almost  the  whole  of  the  central  portion 
of  the  boat.  Enough  steam  could  be  generated  to  carry  the 
vessel  a  dozen  miles  after  the  furnaces  and  chimney  had  been 
sealed  up  preparatory  to  diving.  There  was  a  secret  arrange- 
ment for  keeping  the  air  fresh  which  was  attended  to  by  the 
pilot  in  the  conning-tower,  and  which  amply  sufficed  for  the 
other  two  men  who  formed  the  ship's  company.  Mr.  Garret 
christened  his  new  boat  the  Eesurgam — quite  a  misnomer  as 


124 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 


it  turned  out,  for  she  went  down  off  the  Welsh  coast  and 
never  came  up  again. 

At  the  same  time  that  Garret  was  building  his  first 
boat  a  Russian  rejoicing  in  the  unpronounceable  name  of 
Drzewiecki  was  engaged  on  a  very  weird-looking  submarine 
at  Odessa.  He  called  it  a  "  Podascophe,"  and  in  shape 
it  was  not  unlike  a  dish-cover  on  the  top  of  a  short  cylinder 
with  pointed  ends.  Like  the  Holland  No.  I,  it  was  a  one-man 
boat  driven  by  pedals  and  was  just  about  the  same  length — 


GARRET'S  "  RESURGAM,"  1879. 

By  favour  of  the  Engineer. 

16  feet.  A  couple  of  torpedoes  fitted  with  rubber  "  suckers," 
to  make  them  stick  to  the  hull  of  the  ship  to  be  attacked,  were 
carried  outside  and  were  put  in  position  by  means  of  long 
gloves  protruding  from  the  top  of  the  boat  as  in  one  or  two 
other  submarines  that  we  have  already  mentioned,  The 
Russian  Government  considered  the  results  of  the  trials  of 
this  vessel  sufficiently  encouraging  to  induce  them  to  order 
a  second  and  a  larger  boat  from  the  inventor.  This  one  was 
about  20  feet  long,  and  was  driven  by  pedals  worked  by  the 
feet  of  four  men  seated  back  to  back  amidships  with  their  heads 
in  a  species  of  conning-tower  with  thick  glass  scuttles  all 


THE    PROGRESS    OF    INVKNTTON  125 

round.  The  propeller  could  be  turned  up  or  down  or  sideways, 
so  that  it  assisted  either  to  dive  or  ascend  as  well  as  in  the 
steering.  Sliding  weights  at  bow  and  stern  also  caused  the 
vessel  to  direct  her  nose  upwards  or  downwards.  Like  her  pre- 
decessor she  carried  her  torpedoes  outside,  but  now  they  were 
placed  in  recesses  in  the  upper  part  of  the  hull,  before  and  abaft 
the  conning-tower.  Her  trials,  which  were  carried  out  in  the 
Lake  of  Gatchina,  were  so  satisfactory  that  it  is  said  that  the 
Russian  Government  ordered  no  less  than  fifty  similar  vessels 
to  be  built.  Whether  this  is  true  seems  extremely  doubtful. 
Another  boat  with  improvements,  which  we  shall  notice  later, 
was  built  in  1881,  but  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  the  Russian 
Navy  was  ever  in  possession  of  a  submarine  fleet  of  this  size. 
Some  of  them  might  have  been  useful  in  dealing  with  the 
Japanese  squadron  which  blockaded  Port  Arthur  for  so  long. 

In  1877  Holland  had  built  a  second  boat  at  New  York.     It 

-  shorter  than  his  first  but  fatter,  being  10  feet  long,  3J  feet 

wide,  and  three  feet  deep.     Its  screw  was  driven  by  a  small 

engine,  and  the  boat  was  experimented  with  for  a  long 

time  on  the  Passiac  River.     The  inventor  was  not  pleased  with 

this  boat,  and  eventually  took  the  machinery  out  of  her  and 

sank  the  hull  under  the  Falls  Bridge  at  Paterson. 

Two  years  later  he  started  on  a  third  submarine.  It  seems 
probable  that  this  boat  is  one  and  the  same  with  a  submarine 
known  as  the  Fenian  Earn  which  appeared  about  this  time. 
Mr.  Holland,  in  an  article  in  Cassier's  Magazine,  writes  as 
follows  :  "  Interest  in  submarine  boats  was  again  stimulated 
by  the  success  of  the  Fenian  Ram  in  the  United  States.  This 
boat  was  so  named  by  a  facetious  reporter  who  was  annoyed 
because  he  could  not  get  all  the  information  he  wanted.  It 
was  launched  on  the  Hudson  River  in  New  York  in  April 
1881.  The  experiments  made  with  it  threw  a  great  deal  of 
light  on  the  subject  of  submarine  work.  It  was  proved  that 
guiding  the  boat  by  direct  vision  when  submerged  was  im- 
practicable, that  steering  a  straight  course  under  water, 


126          THE   STORY   OF   THE    SUBMARINE 

although  not  regarded  as  a  difficulty  by  any  one  up  to  that 
date,  was  a  problem  that  must  be  solved  before  submarine 
warfare  could  be  made  practicable  under  modern  conditions." 

Now  the  Holland  No.  Ill  was  also  launched  at  New  York  in 
1881,  and  the  inventor's  longitudinal  section  of  her  is  practi- 
cally identical  with  that  of  the  Fenian  Ram  with  which  he 
illustrates  the  above-quoted  article.  It  is  evident,  too,  that 
he  had  no  difficulty  in  finding  out  about  her  internal  con- 
struction, in  spite  of  the  secrecy  complained  of  by  the  Yankee 
reporters.  The  Holland  III  was  31  feet  long,  6  feet  in  diameter, 
and  cigar- shaped.  She  had  a  displacement  of  19  tons  and 
was  driven  by  a  15-h.p.  oil  engine.  In  her  bow  she  carried 
a  pneumatic  gun  11  feet  long,  from  which  a  9-inch  projectile 
could  be  driven  in  a  straight  line  to  a  distance  of  130  feet. 
A  manhole  for  the  egress  and  ingress  of  divers  was  fitted  on 
her  underside.  This  boat,  after  a  series  of  very  useful  experi- 
ments, was  also  dismantled  and  left  at  New  Haven. 

As  Holland  did  not  produce  another  boat  for  some  years. 
we  must  turn  our  attention  to  a  series  of  submarine  vessels 
that  were  produced  by  Nordenfeldt,  the  well-known  Swedish 
machine-gun  maker.  The  performances  of  Garret's  boats 
seem  to  have  drawn  his  attention  to  submarine  navigation,  and 
he  undoubtedly  had  the  aid  of  this  gentleman's  collaboration, 
though  his  name  does  not  appear  in  the  nomenclature  of  the 
Nordenfeldt  boats. 

The  way  in  which  the  Resurgam  could  bottle  up  steam  to 
work  her  engines  after  the  fires  were  sealed  up  was  doubtless 
one  of  the  main  points  that  appealed  to  Nordenfeldt,  for  he 
made  use  of  a  similar  system  in  every  one  of  his  submarines. 
He  began  to  study  the  question  of  submarine  navigation,  or  it 
would  be  more  correct  to  say  brought  out  his  first  patent,  in 
1881,  but  it  was  not  till  1885  that  his  first  boat  commenced  her 
trials  off  Landskrona  in  Sweden.  She  was  64  feet  long,  9  feet 
wide,  and  11  feet  deep,  cigar-shaped  and  with  a  displacement 
of  60  tons.  She  was  built  of  steel,  with  a  glass  dome  amidships 


THE    PROGRESS   OF   INVENTION  127 

serving  for  a  conning-tower.  Her  motive  power  was  steam, 
and  while  at  the  surface  her  fires  could  be  stoked  in  the  ordinary 
way,  the  smoke  being  driven  out  through  two  channels  leading 
out  astern.  When  diving,  the  fires  had  to  be  sealed  and 
reserve  steam  was  used  which  was  kept  at  high  pressure  in  two 
special  receptacles.  She  carried  a  crew  of  three  men  and 
sufficient  air  to  last  them  for  about  six  hours.  Besides  the 
propelling  engine  there  were  two  others  whose  functions  were 
to  work  a  propeller  placed  horizontally  on  either  side  of  the 
boat,  which  when  set  in  motion  compelled  her  to  sink  and 
kept  her  at  any  required  depth.  Should  these  refuse  to  work 
from  any  cause,  the  boat  would  at  once  come  automatically  to 
the  surface.  The  trials  of  the  Norderfeldt  I  were  attended 
by  a  most  distinguished  audience  including  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
the  King  and  Queen  of  Denmark,  and  the  Czarina.  Naval  and 
military  officers  from  almost  every  country  in  Europe  and 
from  Japan  and  Brazil  were  also  present.  No  submarine  has 
had  such  a  distinguished  "  send  off  "  before  or  since.  Her 
trials  went  off  fairly  well  considering  the  bad  weather  of  the 
first  day,  the  damage  to  her  rudders  by  fouling  the  tow  rope 
by  which  she  was  attached  to  a  steamer  when  coming  out  of 
harbour,  and  an  accident  to  one  of  her  stokers  on  the  last  day. 
She  navigated  at  the  surface  at  about  four  knots  in  the  awash 
position,  and  went  under  water  for  a  minute  or  two  on  several 
occasions.  She  was  eventually  purchased  by  the  Greek 
Government,  who  carried  out  a  further,  and  it  is  said  successful, 
series  of  experiments  in  the  Bay  of  Salamis.  Although  the 
Whitehead  automobile  torpedo  had  at  this  time  been  in  use 
for  a  number  of  years,  it  is  curious  to  note  that  the  Norden- 
feldt  I  was  the  first  submarine  vessel  to  be  equipped  with  this 
weapon,  which  she  fired  from  a  tube  fitted  to  her  bows. 

Nordenfeldt  was  not  altogether  satisfied  with  his  first  boat, 
and  in  1887  two  others  were  built  at  Chertsey,  which  were 
designed  by  him  in  conjunction  with  the  Rev.  W.  Garret. 
Each  of  these  was  driven  and  built  on  verv  much  the  same 


128 


THE    STORY   OF   THE    SUBMARINE 


principles  as  the  former  one,  but  the  screws  for  immersion  were 
placed  at  the  top  of  the  vessel  instead  of  on  either  side.  Her 
torpedo  tube,  too,  was  placed  on  the  bow  instead  of  inside,  and 
she  carried  a  couple  of  small  Nordenfeldt  machine  guns  on 
her  deck  for  use  at  the  surface.  Mr.  Garret  and  her  engineer 
Mr.  Lawrie  went  out  with  one  of  them  to  Constantinople  to 
superintend  her  trials,  which  were  much  handicapped  by  the 
inefficiency  of  the  Turkish  crew.  The  published  accounts  of 
what  may  be  called  her  debut  before  the  Sultan  were 


THE    "  NORDENFELDT    II,"    1887. 

very  promising,  but  later  on  she  does  not  appear  to  have 
done  so  well.  The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  newspaper1 
of  the  period :  "  At  2.30  p.m.  a  loud  murmur  of  admiration 
and  surprise  arose  from  the  old  bridge  at  Galata,  heralding  the 
approach  of  the  Nordenfeldt.  She  came  down  the  Golden  Horn 
at  a  rapid  rate,  threading  her  way  skilfully  between  the  lighters 
and  caiques  that  would  persist  in  keeping  their  course  in  spite 
of  the  pilot  launches,  and  shot  the  bridge  without  slackening 
speed — no  easy  feat  considering  the  narrow  width  of  the 
opening  and  the  adverse  set  of  the  current  which  sweeps 
across  it.  Thousands  of  spectators  were  collected  on  the 

1   The  Engineer. 


THE   PROGRESS   OF   INVENTION  129 

bridge,  as  also  at  Seraglio  Point,  and  many  others  were  afloat 
in  caiques.  It  was  amusing  to  hear  the  comments  on  her 
appearance.  The  '  whale-ship  '  was  conferred  upon  her  as 
a  name  by  the  general  verdict,  and  it  certainly  seemed  most 
apropos,  as  little  was  to  be  seen  of  her  above  water  but  the 
dome  and  upper  part  of  the  torpedo  tube,  which  might  easily 
have  been  taken  in  the  distance  for  the  hump  and  fin  of  some 
great  denizen  of  the  sea.  In  obedience  to  the  orders  of  the 
Sultan,  who  himself  directed  the  manoeuvres  from  the  shore, 
the  boat  lay  for  some  quarter  of  an  hour,  in  the  very  strength 
of  the  current,  off  Seraglio  Point.  She  maintained  her  position 
with  the  greatest  ease  by  a  few  turns  of  the  screw,  while  the 
attendant  launches  found  it  impossible  to  stem  it.  While  in  this 
position  she  narrowly  escaped  serious  injury  owing  to  the  traffic. 
A  large  lighter  crossing  the  stream,  and  hugging  the  wind  to 
save  ground,  passed  too  close  and  was  struck  by  the  screw. 
Fortunately  she  was  empty,  and  so  it  was  easy  to  get  at  the  hole 
made  in  her  bottom,  and  she  reached  the  shore  in  safety.  As 
for  the  Nordenfeldt,  a  few  inches  off  the  end  of  one  of  the 
blades  was  the  only  damage  sustained. 

"  Being  directed  to  attack  a  steamer  lying  off  the  Scutari 
shore,  as  a  surface  boat,  the  Nordenfeldt,  turning  in  a 
little  over  her  own  length,  darted  across  the  current. 
End-on,  very  little  was  seen  of  her,  and  the  eye  once 
removed,  she  was  not  very  readily  discovered  again  in 
spite  of  the  direction  being  known,  on  account  of  the 
absence  of  smoke  and  the  very  light  colour  of  the  outside 
painting.  Even  on  the  broadside  there  was  little  of  the  hull 
to  be  seen  while  running,  on  account  of  the  screen  formed  by 
the  bow  wake.  She  seems  to  divide  the  water  like  a  plough, 
throwing  up  a  bank  on  either  side,  thus  forming  a  furrow  in 
which  she  would  have  run  completely  out  of  view  but  for  the 
small  chimney  necessarily  kept  in  place  for  the  maintenance  of 
combustion.  As  she  neared  the  vessel  two  jets  of  water  were 
suddenly  thrown  upward,  to  fall  in  showers  of  spray.  This 

9 


130          THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

marked  the  moment  of  delivering  her  attack.  The  tube  doors 
being  thrown  open  for  the  release  of  the  Whitehead,  the  water 
rushing  in  forces  out  the  air  through  th,e  vent  holes  at  the  rear, 
with  the  above-described  effect.  At  that  moment  she  looked 
more  like  a  whale  than  ever,  and  might  easily  have  been  taken 
by  the  most  knowing  Greenlander  for  a  big  fish  spouting. 

"  Returning  to  Seraglio  Point,  she  was  next  directed  to  run 
as  a  surface  boat  against  the  current.  In  this  trial  for  speed, 
her  performance  was  a  remarkable  contrast  to  that  of  the 
attendant  launches.  Instead  of  keeping  their  position  as 
pilots,  they  were  soon  left  far  behind.  According  to  the 
revolutions  and  distance  run  in  a  given  time,  she  did  her  eight 
"knots  over  the  ground  against  a  current  that  was  running 
but  very  little  less  than  five.  On  her  return  from  this  run 
orders  were  given  for  a  second  attack  to  be  made  upon  the 
steamer,  on  this  occasion  as  a  submarine  boat.  The  vessel 
being  at  no  great  distance,  she  steamed  slowly  ahead  so  as  to 
afford  time  for  getting  rid  of  the  extra  buoyancy,  and  closing 
up.  Soon  there  was  little  to  be  seen  of  her  but  the  hump-like 
dome,  and  having  turned  towards  the  enemy,  it  was  very  diffi- 
cult to  keep  her  in  view.  Suddenly  she  was  lost  sight  of,  to 
appear  however  shortly  afterwards  rounding  the  bow  of  the 
steamer  from  the  other  side.  She  had,  as  it  were,  dived  to 
deliver  her  blow,  and  then  turned  off  to  avoid  pursuit.  No 
jet  was  thrown  up  on  this  occasion,  the  escaping  air  losing  all 
force  before  reaching  the  surface.  The  Sultan  expressed  him- 
self highly  satisfied  with  the  performance  of  the  boat." 

But  quite  another  story  was  told  when  her  official  trials  took 
place.  It  was  found  impossible  to  keep  her  in  a  horizontal  posi- 
tion when  below  water  for  more  than  half  a  minute  together. 
She  had  no  horizontal  stability  whatever,  and  see-sawed  up  and 
down  the  whole  time  she  was  under  water.  The  first  time 
she  tried  her  torpedoes  was  also  the  last,  as  her  performances 
on  this  occasion  were  appalling.  Directly  her  bows  were 
lightened  by  the  departure  of  the  Whitehead,  her  stern  plunged 


THE  PEOGRESS  OF  INVENTION 


131 


violently  downwards.  On  another  occasion  she  was  all  but 
swamped  by  the  wash  of  a  boat  that  came  suddenly  alongside 
as  she  was  about  to  sink  and  had  not  finished  closing  the  cover. 
Luckily  Mr.  Garret  had  his  wits  about  him,  and  succeeded  in 
making  fast  the  hatch  in  spite  of  the  inrush  of  water.  She 
sank  like  a  stone,  but  by  blowing  water  out  of  her  ballast  tanks 
she  was  brought  to  the  surface  again.  However,  the  Turks 
decided  to  buy  the  boat  in  spite  of  her  disabilities,  though  it 


THE    "  NORDENFELDT    m,"    1889. 

was  some  time  before  the  inventors  could  get  the  money  out 
of  them.  As  might  have  been  expected,  they  made  no  use  of 
her  when  they  had  got  her.  No  engineers  could  be  got  for 
her,  her  crew  deserted  as  fast  as  they  were  appointed  to  her, 
and  she  was  left  to  rust  away  in  the  arsenal  at  Constantinople. 
But  Nordenf  eldt  made  up  his  mind  to  build  yet  another  and  a 
still  larger  submarine.  This  one  was  built  at  Barrow-in-Furness 
and,  fully  equipped,  had  a  displacement  of  245  tons.  She  was 
quite  a  different  shape  from  her  predecessors.  She  was  125  feet 


132  THE    STOKY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

long  and  12  feet  in  diameter  amidships.  But  here  was  the 
only  portion  of  her  that  was  round  in  section,  as  she  got  flatter 
and  flatter  forward  and  abaft  till  she  ended  in  vertical  knife- 
edges.  Her  deck  and  two  conning-towers  were  covered  with 
one-inch  steel  armour,  which  would  have  made  her  impervious 
to  all  machine  guns  of  that  period  when  running  awash.  Her 
horizontal  propellers  for  immersion  worked  in  recesses  cut  in 
the  stem  and  stern.  She  had  a  crew  of  a  captain,  mate,  two 
seamen,  an  engineer,  his  assistant,  two  firemen,  and  a  cook. 
Her  means  of  propulsion  were  similar  to  those  employed  in  the 
other  Nordenfeldt  boats,  but  her  engines  were  more  powerful, 
being  of  1000  i.h.p.,  giving  her  a  surface  speed  of  15  knots 
under  favourable  conditions,  and  a  speed  of  5  knots  when 
submerged.  She,  however,  suffered  from  the  same  want  of 
horizontal  stability  as  her  elder  sisters,  and  her  trials  in  the 
Solent  were  not  at  all  encouraging.  She  had  been  built  for 
the  Eussian  Government,  and  despite  the  unsatisfactory  nature 
of  her  performances  she  was  despatched  to  St.  Petersburg. 
But  she  never  got  there,  as  she  was  wrecked  on  the  coast  of 
Jutland  on  September  18,  1888. 


CHAPTER   XI 
1880-1890 


133 


CHAPTER    XI 

1880-1890 

Progress  of  Submarine  Invention  during  the  'eighties — Campbell 
and  Ash's  Nautilus  and  her  trial  at  Tilbury  Docks — Professor 
Tuck's  Peacemaker — Holland's  fourth  and  fifth  boats — The 
Goubet  boat — Waddington's  Porpoise — The  Gymnote  and  the 
Peral. 

WE  have  already  mentioned  an  enormous  submarine  that  was 
built  by  Alexandrowski  in  1868,  but  which,  like  many  others, 
proved  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  solve  the  problem  of  under- 
water navigation.  Undeterred  by  failure,  this  inventor  con- 
structed another  big  under- water  boat  in  1881,  having  a  dis- 
placement of  no  less  than  460  tons.  No  details  are  available 
as  to  its  peculiarities,  but  it  is  evident  that  it  was  little,  if  any, 
more  successful  than  its  predecessor,  although  it  is  said  that 
the  Director  of  Naval  Construction  at  L'Orient,  one  of  the 
French  naval  ports,  spoke  very  highly  of  the  project.  The 
other  Russian  submarine  designer,  M.  Drzewiecki,  also  returned 
to  the  charge  in  1881  with  a  boat  which,  except  for  a  few  slight 
improvements,  was  a  replica  of  his  second  one.  And  again 
three  years  later  we  find  him  responsible  for  yet  another  sub- 
marine, which  also  was  very  like  the  others  except  that  pedal 
propulsion  gave  place  to  an  electric  motor  supplied  with 
electricity  from  accumulators  ranged  along  the  sides  of  the 
vessel.  It  only  attained  a  speed  of  four  knots,  and  when  the 
Coast  Defences  were  transferred  from  the  Admiralty  to  the 
War  Department  in  1886,  further  experiments  with  submarines 
were  abandoned  for  the  time  being. 

135 


136  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

Compared  to  France  and  the  United  States,  England  has 
produced  very  few  inventors  of  submarine  vessels.  The 
Rev.  G.  W.  Garret  was,  of  course,  a  notable  exception 
to  this  rule,  and  now  we  have  to  describe  a  submarine 
invented  by  two  others  of  our  fellow-countrymen,  Messrs. 
Campbell  and  Ash.  The  Nautilus — a  name  very  familiar 
to  readers  of  Jules  Verne's  exciting  romances — as  she  was 
called,  attracted  a  considerable  amount  of  attention  in  her 
day,  though  that  day  was  a  short  one.  She  was  built  to  the 
inventors'  plans  by  Messrs.  Wolseley  &  Lyon,  and  carried  out 


CAMPBELL   AND    ASH'S    "  NAUTILUS,"    1884. 

her  trials  in  one  of  the  docks  at  Tilbury  in  1886.  She  was  made 
of  Siemens-Martin  steel,  was  60  feet  long  and  8  feet  wide,  and 
had  a  displacement  of  50  tons.  She  was  of  the  very  usual 
cigar  shape,  although  more  curved  below  than  above  from  a 
longitudinal  point  of  view,  and  fitted  with  twin  screws  driven 
by  electrical  motors.  The  means  provided  for  sinking  and 
rising  recall  those  of  old  William  Bourne,  the  Elizabethan 
gunner,  whose  design  for  a  submarine  boat  we  have  fully 
noticed.1  Both  boats  effected  this  by  an  alteration  in  their 
volume — Bourne's  by  pushing  in  or  out  a  portion  of  each  side, 
and  the  Campbell  and  Ash  boat  pushing  in  or  out  four  cylinders 
on  each  side.  Drawn  in,  the  volume  of  water  displaced  was 
i  Vide  Chapter  Ir 


THE    PROGRESS    OF   INVENTION  137 

decreased,  when  she  would  sink.  Driven  out  again  by  screw 
gearing  turned  by  the  motors  on  board,  the  vessel's  displace- 
ment was  increased,  and  she  came  to  the  surface  again.  That 
was  the  theory,  but,  as  will  shortly  be  seen,  it  did  not  work  very 
satisfactorily. 

When  her  most  important  trial  took  place  at  Tilbury, 
she  had  several  distinguished  visitors  on  board,  including 
Lord  Charles  Beresford  and  Sir  William  White,  the  well- 
known  Naval  Constructor.  Down  she  sank  right  enough, 
but  she  remained  below  so  long  that  the  spectators  on  shore 
began  to  get  very  anxious.  What  had  happened  ?  It  after- 
wards transpired  that  there  was  a  deal  of  soft  mud  in  the 
bottom  of  the  dock,  into  which  the  Nautilus  settled  comfortably 
down,  with  the  result  that  her  cylinders  could  not  be  pushed 
outboard.  The  mud  offered  too  much  resistance  for  the 
mechanism,  which  was  designed  for  use  in  clear  water.  The 
air  supply  began  to  get  short,  and  passengers  and  crew  were 
beginning  to  lose  hope,  when  Sir  William  White  suggested  that 
all  hands  should  collect  at  one  end  of  the  boat.  This  caused 
the  other  end  to  lift  clear  of  the  mud,  the  cylinders  could  be 
pushed  out  and  the  boat  came  to  the  surface.  The  engineer, 
who  had  quite  recovered  any  alarm  he  may  have  felt,  was  now 
full  of  confidence,  and  immediately  opened  the  scuttle  to  shout 
to  those  on  shore  that  they  were  going  to  make  another  descent. 
But  most  of  those  on  board  had  had  enough  of  the  Nautilus, 
and  "  were  not  taking  "  any  more  experiments.  They  thought 
they  would  look  better  from  terra  firma.  So  the  sanguine 
engineer  was  hauled  down  out  of  the  hatch  that  he  was  blocking 
and  there  was  a  general  exodus  to  the  shore.  The  unlucky 
submarine  got  a  bad  name,  and  disappeared  from  public 
notice. 

In  1884  Professor  J.  H.  L.  Tuck  of  San  Francisco  invented 
a  submarine  to  which  he  the  next  year  gave  the  somewhat 
suggestive  name  of  the  Peacemaker.  He  appears  to  have 
made  over  his  owner's  rights  to  the  "  Submarine  Monitor  Co." 


138 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 


of  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York,  who  built  her  from  his  designs. 
She  was  first  constructed  in  such  a  way  that  her  captain, 
wearing  a  diver's  dress  and  helmet,  stood  in  a  kind  of  well 
amidships  up  to  his  waist,  so  that  he  had  free  use  of  his  arms 
to  steer  the  vessel  and  manipulate  the  torpedoes.  There  were 
two  of  these  provided  with  cork  floats,  electro-magnets,  and 
electric  detonators.  They  were  stowed  on  the  upper  part  of 
the  vessel  and  connected  together.  It  was  supposed  that 
they  could  be  released  below  the  ship  to  be  attacked,  and 


TUCK'S    "  PEACEMAKER,"    1884. 

would  float  up  and  stick  to  her,  one  on  either  side  of  her  keel, 
after  which  the  boat  would  go  to  a  safe  distance  and  fire 
them  by  electricity.  Eventually,  in  1885,  the  idea  of  having 
the  captain  half  outside  the  boat  was  given  up,  and  a  little 
dome  substituted  for  the  well  in  which  he  stood.  He  now  was 
placed  inside  the  boat  with  his  head  in  the  dome,  which  was 
protected  from  injury  by  a  sort  of  comb  or  ridge  running  fore 
and  aft  of  it.  The  boat  was  built  of  iron  and  steel,  was  30 
feet  long,  7  feet  6  inches  wide,  and  6  feet  deep.  Not  the  least 
notable  feature  of  the  Peacemaker  was  the  "  tireless  engine," 
an  invention  based  on  the  discovery  that  a  solution  of  caustic 
soda  can  be  utilised  under  certain  conditions  to  produce  the 


THE    PROGRESS    OF   INVENTION  139 

heat  necessary  to  generate  steam.  She  dived  and  rose  by  the 
use  of  side  rudders  or  deflectors  placed  at  bow  and  stern,  and 
was  lightened  or  weighted  by  the  admission  or  expulsion  of 
water  from  her  ballast  tanks.  According  to  some  accounts 
she  was  fitted  with  a  horizontal  propeller  to  facilitate  sinking 
and  rising  which  was  placed  immediately  under  the  centre  of 
the  boat,  but  as  there  are  other  palpable  inaccuracies  in  these 
accounts  it  is  probable  that  this  was  not  the  case.  While  the 
trials  went  off  fairly  well,  they  also  proved  that  she  could  not 
be  kept  at  any  required  depth,  the  consequence  being  that 
she  went  to  join  the  long  list  of  non-successful  submarines. 

Holland  about  this  period  again  puts  in  an  appearance  with 
his  fourth  and  fifth  submarines.  He  formed  a  company  in 
1883  under  the  title  "  The  John  P.  Holland  Torpedo  Boat 
Company,"  and  in  1884  the  Holland  IV  was  launched  at 
Jersey  City.  She  only  displaced  one  ton,  was  16  feet  4  inches 
long,  and  2  feet  4  inches  in  diameter.  She  had  a  little 
petrol  motor  for  propulsion,  but  whether  it  or  anything  else 
about  her  was  successful  cannot  be  related,  as  she  met  with 
an  accident  and  sank. 

Holland  V,  which  took  the  water  in  the  year  1885,  was  a 
bigger  affair  than  any  of  her  forerunners.  She  was  nearly 
40  feet  long  and  7  feet  in  diameter.  She  also  had  a  short  life, 
coming  to  grief  on  the  rocks.  She  was,  however,  refloated, 
and  patched  up  sufficiently  to  be  available  for  experiments  in 
enclosed  waters,  docks,  etc.  She  was  to  have  been  armed 
with  a  couple  of  the  pneumatic  guns  invented  by  Lieutenant 
Zalinski  of  the  United  States  Army,  for  throwing  aerial  tor- 
pedoes filled  with  heavy  dynamite  charges,  and  for  this  reason 
is  generally  referred  to  as  the  "  Zalinski  boat." 

Again  Holland  suspended  operations — at  least  publicly — 
for  a  considerable  period,  and  in  the  meantime  another  French 
inventor  attracted  a  great  deal  of  attention.  This  was  M. 
Goubet,  who  in  1885  patented  a  design  for  a  little  submarine 
which  bore  in  many  respects  a  strong  resemblance  to  some  of 


140          THE    STORY   OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

Drzewiecki's  productions.  His  first  boat,  a  small  affair  of 
only  a  ton  displacement,  was  completed  and  launched  in 
1887  and  was  tested  at  Toulon  and  Cherbourg.  Its  principal 
peculiarity  was  that  instead  of  being  built  up,  it  was  cast  in 
a  single  piece  of  bronze.  It  was  short  and  fat,  just  over  16  feet 
long,  nearly  6  feet  high,  and  a  little  over  3  feet  wide.  Its  crew 
of  two  men  sat  back  to  back  amidships,  just  as  they  did  in 
Drzewiecki's  boat.  They  did  not,  however,  propel  the  boat, 
as  this  was  done  by  an  electric  motor.  The  screw,  being 


THE    "  GOUBET   I,"    1885. 

fitted  with  a  kind  of  ball-and-socket  joint,  could  be  turned 
in  any  direction,  and  so  took  the  place  of  a  rudder. 

As  armament  the  Goubet  I  carried  a  little  torpedo  fitted  with 
spikes  that,  on  being  released,  was  supposed  to  float  up  and 
stick  tight  to  the  hull  of  an  enemy,  where  it  could  be  exploded 
at  leisure.  Her  inventor  carried  out  a  number  of  trials  and 
experiments  with  his  little  craft,  but  none  of  them  were  suffi- 
ciently convincing  to  induce  the  French  Ministry  of  Marine 
to  take  it  up.  He  produced  a  second  and  a  larger  submarine 
a  few  years  later,  of  which  anon. 

Probably  one  of  the  most  carefully- thought- out  submarines 


THE    PROGRESS    OF   INVENTION  141 

was  the  Porpoise,  an  electrically  propelled  boat  which  was 
launched  at  Seacombe  near  Liverpool  in  the  year  1886.  Its 
inventor,  Mr.  J.  F.  Waddington,  was  a  member  of  a  ship- 
building firm,  so  that  he  had  a  considerable  amount  of  scientific 
and  technical  knowledge  to  assist  him  in  his  designs.  It  was 
cigar-shaped,  6  feet  in  diameter  at  the  centre,  with  a  total 
over-all  length  of  37  feet.  Like  Nordenfeldt's  boats,  the 
Porpoise  had  horizontal  propellers  for  assisting  her  to  sink  and 
rise  again  to  the  surface,  but  they  were  arranged  in  an  entirely 
different  way.  They  were  not  apparent,  looking  at  the  boat 


WADDINGTON'S  "PORPOISE,"  1885. 

from  the  outside,  because  they  were  placed  in  two  wells  or 
tubes  running  right  through  the  boat  from  top  to  bottom, 
one  being  aft  and  the  other  forward.  Two  propellers  were 
placed  in  each  well  on  the  same  shaft.  Each  pair  had  a  little 
motor  to  drive  them,  so  that  the  ends  of  the  boat  could  be 
raised  or  lowered  either  together  or  independently. 

To  keep  the  vessel  in  a  horizontal  position  whilst  sub- 
merged, a  pair  of  horizontal  rudders  were  so  fitted  that  they 
carried  out  their  duty  automatically.  They  were  connected 
with  an  electro-motor  having  a  worm  gearing  so  contrived 
that  when  the  vessel  was  on  an  even  keel  it  remained 
stationary.  The  slightest  cant  upwards  or  downwards  set  it 


142  THE    STORY   OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

at  work  again,  turning  the  rudders  in  such  a  way  as  to 
counteract  the  deviation.  When  corrected,  it  at  once  stopped 
running  again.  To  further  assist  diving  and  rising,  a  pair  of 
large  inclinable  side  planes  were  fitted  amidships  worked  by 
a  lever  and  counterpoise,  while  in  case  of  emergency  the  boat 
would  at  once  come  to  the  surface  by  the  release  of  a  heavy 
safety- weight  placed  immediately  below  the  centre  of  the  hull. 
Abaft  her  conning-tower,  which  was  situated  amidships,  the 
Porpoise  carried  a  torpedo  or  mine  arranged  to  float  up  much 
like  that  carried  in  the  Goubet  I.  This  was  intended  for  the 
purpose  of  attacking  ships  at  anchor  when  protected  by  torpedo 
netting.  In  addition  to  this  she  was  equipped  with  a  couple 
of  Whitehead  automobile  torpedoes  hung  in  clips  on  either 
side  of  the  conning-tower.  The  motor  had  an  electric  horse- 
power of  7 '96  which  could  drive  her  for  ten  hours  at  eight  miles 
an  hour.  At  half  speed  she  could  travel  for  110  miles,  and  at 
her  most  economical  rate  about  150  miles.  Mr.  Waddington 
carried  out  his  experimental  trials  in  the  Mersey  in  the  presence 
of  representatives  of  the  British  and  several  other  Governments. 
Why  his  boat  was  never  adopted  by  any  Naval  Power  it  is  not 
very  easy  to  say.  Possibly  because  the  British  naval  authori- 
ties were  against  submarines  in  toto  and  because  the  French 
were  at  this  time  much  taken  with  a  boat  designed  by  a  fellow- 
countryman.  Both  the  United  States  and  the  German  Navies 
were  at  this  time  in  a  stationary  and  non-progressive  position, 
while  the  Russians,  as  we  have  already  seen,  after  experiment- 
ing pretty  extensively  with  submarines,  had  abandoned  them 
for  the  time  being. 

The  French  boat  to  which  reference  is  made  was  the 
famous  Gymnote  of  M.  Gustave  Zede,  which  may  be  regarded 
as  the  immediate  ancestor  of  the  big  flotilla  of  submarines 
which  the  French  Navy  now  possesses.  In  any  case  she  was  the 
first  submarine  to  appear  on  the  Navy  List.  Her  conception 
was  due  to  M.  Dupuy  de  Lome,  the  celebrated  engineer  whose 
name  is  commemorated  in  that  of  a  cruiser  in  the  present  Fleet 


f!HE    PROGRESS    OF   INVENTION 


143 


of  the  Republic.  But  death  prevented  him  from  bringing  his 
plans  to  their  fruition,  and  they  were  eventually  completed 
and  presented  to  Admiral  Aube,  the  Minister  of  Marine,  by 
M.  Gustave  Zede.  This  was  in  1886 ;  and  as  the  design  met 
with  the  Admiral's  approval,  the  boat  was  taken  in  hand  at 
once  by  the  Societe  des  Forges  et  Chantiers  de  la  Mediterranee, 
her  construction  being  closely  supervised  by  M.  Zede  and  M. 
Romazzotti,  then  first-class  Assistant  Engineer  of  Marine. 
September  1888  saw  her  launched  and  afloat.  The  Gymnote 
was  built  of  steel  and  was  in  the  form  of  a  cigar.  She  was 


THE    "  GYMNOTE,"    1888. 


59  feet  long,  6  feet  deep,  and  a  few  inches  less  in  beam. 
Her  displacement  was  30  tons  and  she  had  a  55 -h. p. 
motor  deriving  its  electricity  from  564  accumulators.  It  was 
designed  so  as  to  be  extremely  light,  and  yet  drove  the  pro- 
peller at  an  immense  rate.  The  boat  herself,  however,  could 
not  get  along  faster  than  6  or  7  knots  an  hour.  A  telescopic 
conning-tower  was  fitted  for  observation  on  the  surface,  and 
a  periscope  or  optical  tube  for  use  when  below.  The  Gymnote, 
when  her  tanks  were  so  full  that  she  barely  floated,  was  driven 
under  by  means  of  planes  that  inclined  the  axis  of  the  boat 
downward.  According  to  La  Science  Moderne  her  trials 
at  Toulon  were  so  successful  that  "  those  present  at  these 
experiments  could  not  conceal  their  real  feelings,  not  being 


144 


THE    STORY   OF   THE    SUBMARINE 


able  to  believe  in  so  perfect  a  result."  But  with  all  this  perfec- 
tion, no  more  boats  were  built  exactly  on  her  lines.  The 
Gymnote  nevertheless  has  proved  a  most  useful  experimental 
craft,  and  appeared  on  the  French  Navy  List  till  quite  recently. 
One  experiment  she  found  herself  unable  to  carry  out,  and 
that  was  to  take  M.  de  la  Porte,  the  Reporter  of  the  French 
Naval  Budget,  below  for  a  submarine  trip  in  1899.  This 
gentleman  was  of  such  a  Falstaffian  figure  that  it  was  found 
impossible  to  get  him  down  through  her  narrow  hatchway. 


if1 


THE  "FERAL,"  1887. 

Before  finally  quitting  the  Gymnote  we  may  mention  that  her 
armament  consisted  of  a  couple  of  Whiteheads. 

Spain  about  this  time  "  chortled  "  in  the  greatest  self- 
satisfaction  over  a  submarine  invented  by  a  naval  lieutenant, 
Don  Isaac  Peral  by  name.  This  famous  vessel,  which  was 
launched  at  the  Arsenal  of  Caraca  in  1887,  was  70  feet  long 
and  8  feet  6  inches  in  diameter,  and  of  the  usual  cigar  shape. 
She  carried  a  torpedo  tube  in  her  bows,  and  was  driven 
by  a  couple  of  30-h.p.  electric  motors,  each  turning  a 
single  screw.  There  seems  to  have  been  no  particularly 


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THE   PROGRESS   OF   INVENTION  145 

unique  or  novel  feature  about  the  Peral  except  an  electric 
lamp  for  examining  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  Glowing  accounts 
appeared  of  her  trials,  and  so  satisfied  were  the  Spaniards 
with  her  capabilities  that  they  saw  in  her  the  forerunner  of 
a  fleet  of  such  vessels  which  would  enable  them  to  regain  their 
former  naval  prestige.  A  public  subscription  was  started  to 
build  them,  but  what  became  of  the  money  is  unknown. 
No  more  Perals  were  built,  for  it  turned  out  that  so  far  from 
being  what  was  claimed  for  her,  she  was  never  able  to  get 
back  to  harbour  but  in  tow  of  a  tug.  And  this  is  the  boat  of 
which  a  Buenos  Ayres  journal  of  the  period  wrote  that  a 
squadron  of  them  would  "  give  absolute  supremacy  to  Old 
Spain,  who  will  impress  her  law  upon  all  nations,  humiliating 
the  haughtiness  and  pride  which  were  wont  to  swagger  under 
the  mask  of  a  hypocritical  humanity  and,  as  insidious  meddlers, 
to  extend  their  dominions,  increase  their  influence,  and  an 
odious  supervision  over  feeble  nations."  Who  can  the  writer 
have  been  referring  to  ?  Had  the  Peral  been  of  the  least  use 
we  may  be  sure  the  Spaniards  would  have  endeavoured  to 
make  some  trial  of  her  against  "  Uncle  Sam's  "  ships  in  the 
war  with  America,  instead  of  leaving  her  rusting  away  at 
Cadiz.  But  her  inventor  scored  heavily.  Upon  no  designer 
of  submarines  has  descended  such  a  sudden  shower  of  rewards. 
Lieutenant  Peral  was  created  a  Marquis  and  presented  with 
the  handsome  "  indemnity  "  of  500,000  pesetas  for  his  designs 
and  labours.  No  doubt  a  large  number  of  people  would  be 
glad  to  let  any  Government  build  a  submarine  for  them  at 
the  same  figure. 

The  Peral  brings  us  to  the  end  of  the  'eighties,  and  at 
the  same  time  to  the  last  of  what  may  be  termed  the  experi- 
mental stages  in  the  evolution  of  the  submarine.  Science  had 
meanwhile  made  such  forward  strides  that  the  inventors  of 
the  succeeding  decade  had  their  path  very  much  smoothed 
for  them  and,  although  naturally  a  certain  number  of  failures 
have  to  be  recorded,  the  under-water  torpedo-boat  became  a 

10 


146          THE    STORY   OF   THE    SUBMARINE 

fait  accompli  and  a  submarine  flotilla  began  to  be  built 
up  in  several  of  the  most  important  of  the  world's  navies. 
These  boats,  and  even  the  latest  types,  may  be,  and  doubt- 
less are,  some  way  off  perfection,  but  nevertheless  they  have 
reached  such  a  practical  stage  that  they  have  been  formally 
recognised  as  component  parts  of  almost  all  modern  navies. 


CHAPTER   XII 
1890-1900 


147 


CHAPTER   XII 

1890-1900 

Early  German  submarines — The  Italian  submarines  Puttino  and 
Delftno — Van  Wittens'  big  submarine — The  Famous  Gustav 
Zede,  her  trials  and  manoeuvre  exploits — The  Goubet  II — • 
What  a  Descent  is  like — Fontes'  submarines — Alvary  Templo's 
"Aquapede" — Simon  Lake's  first  attempt — the  Argonaut 
Junior — More  "  Holland  "  submarines — The  "  Baker  "  boat. 

GERMANY,  with  the  sole  exception  of  being  the  country  in 
which  Bauer's  first  boat  was  built,  has  not  hitherto  appeared 
at  all  in  the  story  of  the  evolution  of  the  submarine.  For  one 
thing  she  had  been  too  busy  fighting  on  shore,  and  later  on 
consolidating  her  empire,  to  have  much  time  to  attend  to 
matters  nautical.  But  by  1890  she  had  the  nucleus  of  a  for- 
midable fleet  and  fully  intended  to  go  further  in  the  develop- 
ment of  her  sea-power,  and  in  this  year  she  began  very  quietly 
to  experiment  with  submarine  craft — so  quietly  that  she 
contrived  to  keep  the  fact  of  her  being  possessed  of  a  couple 
of  these  boats  secret  from  the  usually  well-informed  Austrian 
Marine  Almanach  and  other  publications  of  the  same  sort 
which  give  tables  of  the  naval  strength  of  the  various  Powers. 
Meanwhile  she  professed  to  laugh  the  "  unterseeische  boot " 
to  scorn.  The  German  experimental  submarines  were  built 
at  Kiel  and  Dantzig  and  are  said  to  have  been  of  the  Norden- 
f  eldt  type  which  we  have  already  described.  They  were  biggish 
boats  of  200  tons  apiece,  over  a  hundred  feet  long,  and  11  or 
12  feet  in  diameter.  Moreover  their  speed  both  above  and 
below  water  compared  very  favourably  with  that  of  other 

149 


150  THE    STORY   OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

submarine  craft  that  had  been  constructed  up  to  date.  These 
boats  took  part  in  the  manoeuvres  of  1890,  but  their  per- 
formances did  not  reach  the  English  press.  Another  similar 
but  smaller  boat  was  built  at  Kiel  the  next  year,  but  none  of 
the  three  attained  the  degrees  of  perfection  that  the  exacting 
German  authorities  demand  for  their  fighting  materiel.  But 
though  no  more  were  built  immediately,  the  question  of 
under- water  navigation  was  not  lost  sight  of  by  the  Kaiser's 
Admiralty,  as  we  shall  see  later. 

Italy,  too,  began  to  devote  some  attention  to  this  branch 
of  naval  warfare,  and  in  1892  Pullino,  a  naval  engineering 
constructor,  built  a  submarine  at  Spezzia  which  is  known 
by  his  name.  The  Pullino  had  a  displacement  of  15  tons 
and  was  about  40  feet  long,  drove  herself  below  water  by 
means  of  horizontal  propellers  like  the  Nordenfeldt  boats, 
and  generally  carried  out  her  trials  with  marked  success. 
The  results  of  the  experiments  with  the  Pullino  emboldened 
the  Italian  Admiralty  to  improve  her  into  a  larger  sub- 
marine of  a  similar  type.  This  boat  was  named  the 
Delfino,  and  was  launched  in  1894.1  She  was  a  very  much 
larger  vessel,  costing  £12,000  and  having  a  displacement  of 
over  100  tons.  She,  like  her  predecessor,  was  propelled  by 
electrically  driven  engines,  and  beat  all  other  submarines  in 
under- water  speed,  as  she  is  said  to  have  kept  up  10  knots  an 
hour  for  a  considerable  period  when  submerged.  She  is  fitted 
with  a  couple  of  torpedo  tubes  and  carries  an  air  supply 
sufficient  for  twelve  men  for  eight  hours. 

In  the  same  year  that  the  Pullino  was  launched,  a  big  cigar- 
shaped  submarine  is  said  to  have  been  built  according  to  the 
designs  of  Van  Wittens,  a  Dutch  shipowner  in  Newfoundland. 
Little  is  known  about  this  vessel  except  that  she  was  con- 
siderably over  200  feet  long,  carried  14  men,  and  was 
fitted  with  twin  screws.  She  is  said  to  have  proved  very 

1  Possibly  the  Delfino  was  merely  the  Pullino  after  improvements 
and  alterations.  Vide  Chap.  XIV.,  under  heading  "  Italy." 


THE    PROGRESS    OF   INVENTION 


151 


successful  under  water,   but  what  became  of  her  cannot  be 
ascertained. 

In  dealing  with  the  next  submarine  we  have  to  notice  we 
are  treading  on  much  surer  ground.  This  is  the  Gustave  Zede, 
whose  plans  were  based  on  the  data  gained  during  the  experi- 
ments with  the  Gymnote.  The  construction  of  the  new  boat, 
which  it  was  intended  to  christen  La  Sirene,  was  entrusted  to 
M.  Gustave  Zede  and  M.  Romazzotti,  a  naval  constructor, 
and  it  was  built  in  the  Mourillon  Yard  at  Toulon.  But  before 
it  was  ready  for  launching  M.  Zede  died,  and  to  commemorate 
the  important  part  the  deceased  engineer  had  played  in  the 


THP,    "  GUSTAVE    ZEDE,"    1893. 

evolution  of  the  French  submarines,  the  Sirene's  name  was 
changed  to  the  Gustave  Zede.  She  took  the  water  on  June  1, 
1893,  and  great  things  were  expected  of  her  by  the  experts. 
She  was  built  of  "  Roma  "  bronze,  which  is  not  liable  to 
corrosion  by  sea-water,  and  had  a  displacement  of  270  tons. 
She  is  160  feet  long,  with  a  beam  of  12  feet  6  inches.  Her 
propelling  apparatus  consists  of  a  couple  of  electric  engines 
of  360-h.p.  apiece,  supplied  with  electricity  from  a  series  of 
accumulators,  which  turned  out  to  be  very  troublesome  to 
the  inmates  of  the  boat.  They  began  by  nearly  setting  the 
boat  on  fire  by  "  short-circuiting,"  and  when  this  defect  was 
remedied  gave  off  such  poisonous  fumes  that  crew  after  crew 
suffered  severely  from  their  effects.  The  Gustave  Zede,  while 


152  THE    STOEY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

preserving  the  cigar-like  shape  of  the  Gymnote,  was  much 
longer  in  proportion  to  her  breadth,  while  the  upper  part  was 
flattened  for  a  considerable  portion  of  its  length.  She  carried 
three  18-inch  Whitehead  torpedoes  but  only  one  tube  to  fire 
through,  which  was  placed  right  in  the  bows. 

Despite  the  experience  gained  in  the  Gymnote  experiments, 
the  designers  of  the  Gustave  Zede  soon  found  that  she  was  far 
from  fulfilling  their  expectations.  Owing,  very  possibly,  to 
her  great  length,  the  new  submarine  was  not  only  horizontally 
unstable,  but  was  very  difficult  to  steer  on  account  of  the  way 
she  "  yawed  "  violently  from  side  to  side.  Her  crew  and 
passengers  were  flung  about  like  dice  in  a  box,  and  what  with 
the  fumes  from  the  accumulators  she  was  far  from  being  a 
desirable  craft  to  go  to  sea  in.  According  to  an  account 
published  in  a  naval  journal  at  the  end  of  1894,1  "  The  sub- 
marine boat  Guslave  Zede  has  disappointed  its  admirers.  It 
lately  made  trials  at  8  knots,  with  several  plunges,  and  the 
discovery  was  made  that  urgent  modifications  were  necessary. 
Generally  speaking,  it  seems  to  be  established  that  the  boat 
is  too  large  to  answer  any  real  purpose  in  war.  Moreover,  at 
the  moment  of  descent,  its  inclination  is  sometimes  so  great 
that  the  screw  emerges,  and,  meeting  with  no  resistance  from 
the  water,  revolves  with  great  rapidity.  Under  these  circum- 
stances, in  the  narrow  space  allotted  to  them  it  becomes  very 
difficult  for  the  men  to  preserve  equilibrium,  and  the  value 
of  the  boat  as  a  fighting  craft  becomes  very  problematical. 
The  greatest  depth  to  which  the  Zede  has  yet  descended  is 
17  metres.  The  men  on  board  have  suffered  from  some 
affection  of  the  mucous  membrane  of  the  throat,  and  a  medical 
officer  was  instructed  to  report  upon  the  matter." 

At  the  surface,  however,  the  Zede  appears  to  have  proved 

a  very  respectable  sea-boat,  making  several  trips  of  considerable 

length  in  rough  and  choppy  seas  in  a  very  creditable  manner. 

Her  designers  were  determined  that  she  should  be  a  success, 

1   The  Naval  and  Military  Record. 


P.  152] 


TI1K    "  GUSTAVE    ZEDE  "    AT    AJACCIO. See  p.    153. 


OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


THE    PROGRESS    OF   INVENTION  153 

however  disheartening  her  early  under- water  performances 
might  have  been,  and  with  the  most  admirable  perseverance 
they  went  on  making  alteration  after  alteration,  trial  after 
trial,  and  improvement  after  improvement  until  she  really 
began  to  approach  their  ideal,  as  the  following  account,  trans- 
lated from  the  Temps,  of  experiments  carried  out  in  1901 
(eight  years,  it  must  be  remembered,  since  her  launch)  goes  to 
prove.  The  "  A  "  squadron  of  French  battleships  was  lying 
at  Ajaccio  in  Corsica,  and  the  Zede  was  told  off  to  go  and 
attack  them.  She  left  Marseilles  without  her  departure  being 
perceived  by  the  pilots  on  the  quays,  and  the  following  day 
arrived  off  Ajaccio  just  as  the  fleet  was  putting  to  sea.  "  The 
presence  of  the  submarine,"  says  the  Temps,  "  was  not  sus- 
pected till  a  curious  shock  was  felt "  (on  board  the  Charles 
Martel)  "  and  a  white  furrow  was  perceived  on  the  surface  of 
the  water.  Then,  a  couple  of  hundred  yards  distant,  a  black 
cylinder,  which  was  the  optical  tube  of  the  submarine,  was 
observed.  This  sudden  and  unexpected  attack,  which  had 
been  so  cleverly  carried  out  by  Lieutenant  Jobard,  awakened 
a  general  enthusiasm.  It  came  to  the  surface  a  few  moments 
later,  and,  saluted  by  the  lighter  batteries  of  the  Jaureguiberry 
and  Charles  Martel,  it  dived  once  more,  but,  in  crossing  the 
course  of  the  Jaureguiberry  too  close  to  that  battleship, 
exposed  itself  to  certain  destruction.  The  Jaureguiberry  had 
to  alter  course  to  the  left  to  avoid  this."  But  the  submarine 
was  adjudged  by  the  umpires  to  have  been  destroyed,  as  indeed 
she  would  have  been. 

Here  we  will  leave  the  Gustave  Zede,  the  prototype  of  most 
of  the  modern  French  submarines,  and  turn  our  attention  to  a 
second  boat  constructed  by  M.  Goubet,  which,  though  never 
successful  in  getting  adopted  by  any  of  the  Naval  Powers — 
unless  we  accept  an  extremely  improbable  story  to  the  effect 
that  300  were  ordered  by  the  Kussian  Government l — had  yet 

1  This  probably  is  merely  another  adaptation  of  the  "  yarn  " 
about  the  50  Drzewiecki  boats.  Vide  Chapter  X. 


154  THE    STOKY    OF    THE    SUBMAEINE 

very  many  points  of  interest  about  her.  His  first  vessel  was 
considered  too  small  for  practical  torpedo  work,  and  the 
inventor  therefore  decided  upon  building  an  improved  and 
larger  edition.  The  Goubet  II  was  nearly  27  feet  long  and 
7  feet  in  diameter,  made  of  three  bronze  castings  securely 
bolted  together.  Being  much  shorter  than  the  Zede  and  other 
spindle-shaped  boats,  she  had  little  or  no  trouble  as  regards 
horizontal  stability.  What  she  was  like  inside  is  best  shown 
by  the  following  extracts  from  an  account  published  in  Le 
Yacht.  "  The  interior  aspect,"  says  the  writer,  "  is  very 
attractive  and  very  simple.  It  is  all  painted  white  and  seats  of 
varnished  india-rubber,  covering  the  accumulators,  are  placed 
to  port  and  starboard.  In  the  centre,  close  to  the  tube  of  the 
conning-tower,  is  placed  a  wheel  by  which  the  rudder  is 
worked,  or  rather  a  steering-wheel  by  which  the  propeller  is 
moved.  The  shaft  of  the  screw  is  articulated  with  that  of  the 
motor  by  a  '  Goubet  joint '  in  such  a  manner  as  to  allow  of  the 
boat  performing  evolutions  in  any  direction.  All  about  the 
dome  are  placed  glasses,  thanks  to  which  one  is  able  to  inspect 
the  horizon  when  at  the  surface.  My  position  is  forward.  I 
am  comfortably  seated  on  a  seat  in  the  form  of  a  horseshoe, 
and  find  within  my  reach  :  1st,  a  pair  of  oars  which  are  moved 
by  turning  a  vertical  axle,  and  of  which  the  paddles  fold  up 
when  coming  forward  for  a  stroke  ;  2nd,  on  either  hand  a 
cock  for  letting  water  into  the  ballast  tanks  ;  3rd,  at  my  feet 
two  flywheels  between  which  is  a  lever  for  working  a  double- 
ended  suction-pump.  In  the  stern,  which  is  reserved  for  the 
engineer,  is  the  motor,  a  large  tank  for  water  in  case  a  sudden 
dive  were  a  necessity,  and  an  electrically  worked  rotary  pump 
— a  new  apparatus  applied  for  the  first  time  in  the  Goubet  II 
— for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  the  vessel  at  an  even  depth 
when  in  motion  submerged.  We  will  call  it  the  '  automatic 
immersion  regulator.'  The  entrance  hatch  is  closed.  We  are 
going  to  submerge.  The  water-cocks  on  both  the  starboard 
and  port  sides  are  open.  We  can  hear  the  water  running  into 


THE    PROGRESS    OF   INVENTION  155 

the  ballast  tanks,  and  yet  the  stability  is  in  no  way  affected. 
The  surface  of  the  water  mounts  up  the  look-out  glasses,  the 
needle  of  the  manometer  is  slowly  rising.  The  top  of  the 
conning-tower  is  awash.  The  water-cocks  are  turned  off. 
Immersion  is  complete,  and  we  remain  motionless  in  an  equili- 
brium. The  cocks  are  again  open  for  a  moment  to  allow  of  a 
glass  of  water  to  enter  the  tanks,  and  the  new  position  of 
equilibrium  is  at  10  centimetres  below  the  surface.  This  (the 
surface)  divides  the  view  of  the  optical  tube  pushed  out  above 
the  dome  in  two  equal  lengths,  just  as  in  the  cylinders  of  a 
telescope.  The  vision  seen  is  very  clear,  and  yet  we  are  only 
showing  a  half  of  the  prism  which  forms  the  top  of  the  optical 
tube.  It  is  about  the  size  of  a  five-franc  piece."  x 

Despite  her  stability,  which  was  very  much  superior  to  that 
of  any  other  submarine  that  had  ever  been  invented — unless 
perhaps  we  may  except  Bushnell's  "  turtle" — despite  a  variety 
of  fairly  satisfactory  trials,  the  French  Government  rejected 
Goubet  II.  It  was  said  that  her  speed  was  too  slow  and  that 
it  was  hard  to  maintain  her  at  any  particular  depth  below 
water.  One  reason  which  very  probably  influenced  the 
authorities  was  that  they  had  decided  to  put  their  money  on 
the  Gustave  Zede,  and  big  boats  of  her  type ;  and,  as  we  have 
seen,  they  were  at  this  time  carrying  out  very  extensive 
experiments  with  the  Zede,  which  they  were  determined  to 
make  a  success.  So  the  rival  submarine  was  thrown  over  and 
her  designer  in  disgust  betook  himself  to  England.  Here  he 
sold  his  invention  outright  for  £4,000  and  a  third  share  of  the 
profits  to  a  syndicate,  who  formed  a  company  under  the  title  of 
"  The  British  Submarine  Boat  Company."  The  company, 
however,  does  not  seem  to  have  done  anything  to  justify  its 
existence.  Anyway,  in  September  1902,  the  Goubet  II  was 
seized  by  the  inventor's  creditors  as  she  lay  in  dock  and  sold.2 
She  eventually  became  the  property  of  a  M.  Maire,  and  it  is 

1  As  quoted  by  Mr.  A.  H.  Burgoyne  in  "  Submarine  Navigation." 

2  Pesce,  "  La  Navigation  Sous- marine." 


156  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

said  that  at  the  present  time  she  is  to  be  seen  on  the  Lake  of 
Geneva,  where  she  takes  tourists  for  under- water  trips  at  a 
sovereign  a  time.  The  fare  seems  rather  excessive  for  the  run, 
— which  is  a  short  one — but  a  bonus  is  presented  to  the 
adventurous  traveller  in  the  shape  of  a  life  insurance  policy  for 
the  journey.  Goubet  had  one  order  for  a  couple  of  submarines 
for  the  Brazilian  Government. 

The  inventor  did  not  last  long  after  his  second  boat  was 
"  sold  up,"  as  he  died  in  January  1903.  He  was  evidently  not 
"  one  of  the  lucky  ones."  Had  he  been,  and  had  his  life  been 
spared  a  few  years  longer,  it  is  very  probable  that  we  should 
have  heard  a  good  deal  more  of  the  "Goubet"  submarines, 
which,  whatever  their  shortcomings,  had  some  very  excellent 
characteristics. 

Before  going  on  to  describe  the  very  successful  submarines 
constructed  by  Mr.  Simon  Lake  of  Baltimore,  we  may  note  in 
passing  that  Lieutenant  Fontes  de  Mello,  of  the  Portuguese 
Navy,  invented  a  submarine  which  was  launched  in  1890.  It 
was  not  a  very  interesting  craft,  as  it  had  no  means  of 
propulsion.  Probably  it  was  made  merely  for  experimental 
purposes,  to  provide  data  for  another  submarine  constructed 
from  the  designs  of  the  same  inventor  which  was  launched  in 
1892.  The  Plongeur,  as  Fontes'  second  boat  was  called,  had  a 
displacement  of  100  tons  and  was  72  feet  long.  She  was  tried 
at  sea,  and  in  the  opinion  of  the  Portuguese  was  much  superior 
to  any  foreign  submarine. 

Another  noteworthy,  because  curious,  attempt  to  pro- 
vide for  under-water  locomotion  was  the  "Aquapede,"  or 
under-water  cycle,  invented  by  an  American  workman  in 
Brooklyn,  Alvary-Templo  by  name,  in  1896.  Imagine  a 
huge  cigar  16  feet  long  and  2  feet  in  diameter  with  an 
electric  lamp  at  one  end,  propeller  and  rudder  at  the  other, 
a  frame  underneath  supporting  a  pair  of  bicycle  pedals,  and  a 
big  hole  cut  transversely  through  the  middle  from  top  to 
bottom.  That  may  give  some  idea  of  the  "  Aquapede,"  which 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  INVENTION 


157 


was  actually  built,  and  in  which  the  inventor  claimed  to  have 
made  several  enjoyable  under- water  trips.  Clad  in  a  diver's 
costume,  he  attached  his  india-rubber  air-tubes  to  the  air- 
chambers  at  either  end  of  the  cigar,  and  got  through  the  central 
hole  till  he  found  himself  seated  on  a  species  of  saddle  just 
below  it,  with  his  feet  on  the  pedals.  Seizing  the  bicycle 
handles  placed  in  front  of  him,  the  voyager  admits  water  into 
his  ballast  tanks,  revolves  the  pedals,  and  gaily  adventures 


THE    "  AQT7APEDE,"    1896. 

into  the  depths  below.  But  his  example  did  not  seem  to  bear 
fruit.  The  "  Aquapede  "  has  not  yet  become  quite  as  common 
as  the  bicycle,  though  invented  rather  more  than  ten  years  ago. 
But  the  queer  little  wooden  submarine  built  by  Alvary- 
Templo's  fellow-countryman,  Mr.  Simon  Lake,  in  1894-5  was 
the  precursor  of  a  series  of  very  successful  submarine  vessels. 
She  was  built  of  yellow  pine  timber,  painted  with  coal  tar,  and 
was  14  feet  long,  4|  feet  wide,  and  5  feet  high.  She  was 
a  most  unambitious  boat,  only  hoping  to  be  able  to  move  along 
the  bottom  on  three  wooden  wheels  turned  by  hand-cranks 


158 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 


within.  She  looked  a  cross  between  a  dinghy  and  a  box  on 
wheels.  She  was  not  intended  for  warlike  purposes,  and  is 
only  mentioned  here  because  she  is  the  direct  ancestor  of  the 
formidable  Protector  submarine,  which  we  shall  have  occasion 
to  describe  farther  on.  Like  her  immediate  successors 
Argonaut  I  and  Argonaut  II,  the  Argonaut  Junior,  as  she 
has  been  termed,  was  primarily  designed  for  salvage  operations 


LAKE'S  "  ARGONAUT  JUNIOR,"  1895. 


below  water.  Her  function  was  to  take  down  a  diver  to  the 
place  where  his  services  were  required.  On  arrival  he  was 
able  to  leave  the  boat  through  a  specially  contrived  door  or 
hatchway.  This  feature,  as  well  as  the  wheels  for  moving  on 
the  sea-floor,  have  been  retained  in  the  later  models  which  will 
be  described  in  the  chapter  on  Submarine  Workers,  and  even 
in  the  Protector. 
It  is  now  necessary  that  we  should  return  to  Mr.  John 


THE    PROGRESS    OF   INVENTION  159 

Holland,  whom  we  last  heard  of  in  connection  with  the  Zalinsky, 
or  Holland  No.  F,  in  1885.  In  1892  he  took  out  a  patent  for  a 
vessel  which  he  called  the  Plunger,  but  which  never  was  built. 
But  he  utilised  the  plans  of  this,  his  sixth  boat — of  course  with 
considerable  modifications — for  the  construction  of  Plunger  II, 
or  Holland  No.  VII.  This  design  was  submitted  to  the  United 
States  Government  in  consequence  of  an  invitation  to  the 
designers  of  submarines  to  submit  plans  of  an  under-water 
torpedo-boat  suitable  for  use  in  the  navy.  Holland's  design 
was  chosen  out  of  a  large  number  that  were  sent  in,  and  in 
1895  the  contract  was  signed  for  building  her  with  the  "  Holland 
Torpedo  Boat  Company."  She  was  an  ambitious  vessel  of  no 


-^ 


''  HOLLAND    VH  "    OR    "  PLUNGER, 


ess  than  100  tons  displacement  and  85  feet  long,  fitted  with 
three  torpedo  tubes  and  two  steel-armoured  gun  turrets  for 
fighting  when  at  the  surface.  But  before  she  was  completed 
the  Holland  Company  had  so  far  advanced  with  another  boat 
which  they  considered  would  be  infinitely  superior,  that  they 
suggested  the  abandonment  of  the  Plunger  in  favour  of  their 
new  design.  They  offered  to  refund  the  Government  all 
expenses  connected  with  the  Plunger  II  if  they  would  give 
them  the  contract  to  build  them  their  Holland  VIII.  The 
Government,  seeing  that  the  Holland  Company  were  ready 
to  stake  so  much  on  their  new  idea,  agreed  to  the  proposal, 
and,  accounts  being  squared  up,  the  Plunger  was  abandoned, 
although  she  had  actually  been  launched,  and  the  Hol- 
land VIII  was  proceeded  with. 


160 


THE    STORY   OF    THE    SUBMARINE 


This  boat  turned  out  after  all  to  be  more  or  less  an  experi- 
mental one,  as  eventually  she  was  altered  very  considerably. 
She  was  a  porpoise-like  vessel  55  feet  long,  nearly  11  feet  in 
diameter,  and  of  75  tons  displacement.  Her  single  propeller 
was  driven  by  a  gas  engine  when  at  the  surface  and  by  an 
electric  motor  when  below,  both  being  placed  on  the  same  shaft 
and  connected  or  disconnected  as  required.  She  carried  a 


THE    "  HOLLAND    VIII,"     1902. 

torpedo  tube,  a  tube  for  throwing  aerial  torpedoes,  and  a 
submarine  gun,  the  latter  being  placed  aft  and  inclined  up- 
wards, as  was  the  aerial  torpedo  tube  forward.  In  attacking 
a  ship,  the  Holland  was  intended  to  advance  till  near  enough 
to  use  her  aerial  torpedo,  containing  100  pounds  of  guncotton. 
Having  fired  this  she  would  at  once  dive,  go  nearer,  and  fire 
her  Whitehead.  If  this  missed  she  would  pass  underneath 
her  enemy,  letting  go  her  after  submarine  gun  as  she  left  her 
astern. 


THE   PROGRESS   OF   INVENTION 


161 


Altered  and  transformed  into  the  Holland  IX,  she  was 
purchased  for  the  United  States  Navy,  and  of  her  we  shall 
treat  further  in  a  later  chapter. 

Although  Holland,  as  we  have  seen,  was  the  successful 
competitor  among  those  inventors — a  considerable  number, 
by  the  way — who  had  submitted  plans  of  submarines  in  re- 
sponse to  the  invitation  of  the  United  States  Government,  he 
was  run  very  close  by  Mr.  G.  C.  Baker  of  Chicago,  who  not 


THE    "  BAKER  "    BOAT,    1892. 

only  sent  in  designs  but  actually  built  a  very  excellent  sub- 
marine. This  boat,  which  carried  out  some  very  successful 
experiments  in  1892,  had  some  rather  unique  features,  and 
is  well  worthy  of  a  short  description.  To  begin  with,  her 
inventor  went  back  to  wood  in  the  construction  of  her  hull, 
which  in  form  was  like  an  elongated  and  flattened  egg.  She 
was  sheathed  outside  with  thin  steel.  Her  displacement  was 
twenty  tons,  she  was  46  feet  long,  9  feet  wide,  and  13  feet  deep. 
For  surface  work  she  had  a  steam-engine,  which  could  also 

11 


162          THE   STORY   OF   THE    SUBMARINE 

be  utilised  to  charge  the  storage  batteries  with  the  electricity 
needed  to  propel  her  when  under  water.  She  was  provided 
with  two  propellers,  which  were  attached  to  her  in  a  very 
ingenious  way,  so  as  to  be  utilised  not  only  for  propulsion 
either  backwards  or  forwards,  but  also  for  ascent  and  descent. 
The  short  shaft  on  which  each  screw  was  placed  was  held  in  a 
species  of  fork  or  crutch  placed  on  either  side  of  the  boat 
amidships.  These  crutches  could  be  revolved  by  suitable 
machinery,  so  that  the  propellers  they  carried — which  were 
turned  by  a  bevel  gearing  between  the  arms  of  the  crutch — 
could  be  made  to  exert  their  driving  force  in  any  direction. 
The  boat  was  fitted  with  a  small  domed  conning-tower  amid- 
ships, an  ordinary  rudder,  and  a  torpedo  tube  forward,  and 
was  altogether  a  well-considered  and  creditable  design  which 
might  well  have  brought  her  inventor  a  better  return  than  it 
did. 


CHAPTER   XIII 
SUBMARINES  OF  TO-DAY 


163 


CHAPTER   XIII 
SUBMARINES  OF  TO-DAY 

Modern  British,  French,  and  German  submarines  and  their 
adoption  by  these  Naval  Powers. 

WE  have  now  reached  a  stage  in  our  story  in  which  the  sub- 
marine may  be  said  to  have  "  arrived."  After  hundreds  of 
years  of  experiments,  some  quite  hopeless,  others  seeming  to 
promise  success,  some  ending  fatally  to  the  experimenters, 
others  apparently  really  successful  but  not  followed  by  the 
results  which  might  have  been  expected  in  the  way  of  practical 
and  extensive  adoption  of  the  boats  and  apparatus  about 
which  so  many  satisfactory  reports  had  been  made,  the  sub- 
marine has  at  length  taken  a  definite  place  in  the  world's 
navies.  It  will  be  impossible  in  the  space  at  our  disposal  to 
continue  the  history  of  the  development  of  the  submarine  on 
the  same  lines  as  we  have  so  far  followed,  but  a  general  account 
will  be  given  of  the  types  of  submarine  belonging  to  each  of  the 
Naval  Powers,  their  numbers  and  characteristics. 

GREAT  BRITAIN. — Till  a  comparatively  recent  date  both  the 
Government  and  the  people  of  this  country  had  always  been 
averse  to  the  employment  of  submarine  torpedo  vessels.  We 
have  heard  Lord  St.  Vincent's  opinion  with  regard  to  Fulton's 
submarine,  and  for  years  afterwards  these  little  vessels  were 
wisely  and  consistently  discouraged  by  the  premier  Naval  Power, 
and  when  Foreign  Powers  began  to  experiment  with  them  and 
even  adopt  them,  they  were  stigmatised  as  being  the  "  weapons 
of  the  weak."  In  1900  the  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty, 

16$ 


166 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 


answering  a  question  put  to  him  in  the  House  of  Parliament, 
said  that  "the  Admiralty  had  not  designed  a  submarine  boat, 
and  did  not  propose  to  design  one,  because  such  a  boat  would 
be  the  weapon  of  an  inferior  Power.  But  he  qualified  this  by 
saying,  "  But  if  it  could  be  produced  as  a  working  article,  the 
Power  which  possessed  such  an  article  would  no  longer  be  an 
inferior  but  a  superior  Power."  The  experiments  made  by 
the  French  in  under-water  attack  and  submarine  navigation 
about  this  time,  and  the  confidence  they  loudly  proclaimed 


THE    "  HOLLAND    X. 

that  they  felt  in  the  formidable  nature  of  the  submarine  vessels 
they  had  built  and  that  were  under  construction,  awakened  a 
certain  amount  of  uneasiness  in  this  country,  and,  urged  on 
by  the  press  and  by  various  persons  who  made  naval  affairs 
their  study,  the  Admiralty,  having  made  their  own  inquiries 
into  the  matter,  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Holland 
Torpedo  Boat  Company  had  turned  out  about  as  near  an  ap- 
proach to  "  a  working  article  "  as  was  to  be  had,  and  ordered 
five  of  their  submarine  boats.  The  company  had  already 
constructed  several  of  a  more  or  less  uniform  type,  while  the 
French  boats  were  all  different  and  to  a  great  extent  experi- 
mental. The  avowed  obj  ect  of  the  Admiralty  in  purchasing  the 


SUBMARINES    OF    TO-DAY 


167 


five  "  Hollands  "  was  to  find  out  the  best  means  of  defeating 
the  attacks  of  submarine  vessels,  and  also  by  means  of  actual 
experiment  to  form  an  opinion  of  their  own  as  to  their  real 
value.  As  several  sets  of  submarines,  each  composed  of  larger 
boats  than  its  predecessor,  have  been  built  and  ordered  since 
then,  there  can  be  little  doubt  as  to  what  that  opinion  turned 
out  to  be. 

The  exact  details  of  all  British  boats  have  been  wisely  and 


A   SUBMARINE    OF    THE    "  A  ";  CLASS. 

carefully  preserved  as  a  secret,  but  there  is  a  consensus  of 
opinion  that  the  first  five  were  practically  identical  with  the 
six  "  Hollands  "  of  the  Adder  class  ordered  for  the  United 
States  Navy  in  June  1900.  They  had  a  displacement  of  120 
tons,  were  63  feet  4  inches  long,  and  11  feet  9  inches  wide. 
These  perfected  "  Hollands  "  (Holland  X  type)  were  cigar-like 
to  a  certain  extent,  but  their  fatness  in  proportion  to  their 
length,  combined  with  the  alteration  in  their  outline  made  by 
the  addition  of  a  shallow  superstructure  which  came  right 
down  over  the  point  of  the  bow,  and  the  tail  fins  and  rudders, 
gave  them  very  much  the  appearance  of  a  porpoise.  They 


168  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

resembled  these  fish  in  another  way,  and  that  was  the  way  in 
which  they — as  well  as  the  later  "Hollands" — put  their  noses 
down  and  plunged  below.  They  were  really  "  diving  boats," 
and  did  not  attempt  to  submerge  themselves  horizontally  as 
did  the  "  Nordenf eldts  "  and  the  Campbell  and  Ash  boats,  for 
instance.  They  have  but  one  screw  propeller,  which  is  driven 
by  a  190-h.p.  gasoline  engine  when  at  the  surface.  When 
the  boat  is  navigating  under  water,  this  engine  is  thrown 
out  of  gearing  with  the  shaft,  and  an  electric  motor  takes 
its  place.  Eight  knots  speed  has  been  realised  above,  and 
5  knots  under  water  with  the  first  boat,  which,  although  its 


A    SUBMARINE    OF    THE         B         CLASS. 


designs  and  the  right  to  build  from  them  had  been  purchased 
from  the  Holland  Torpedo  Boat  Company,  was  actually  con- 
structed by  Messrs.  Vickers,  Sons  &  Maxim  at  Barrow-in- 
Furness,  where  it  was  launched  on  November  2,  1901.  Its 
four  sisters  were  somewhat  improved  models,  and  were  able 
to  travel  rather  faster.  The  array  of  dynamite  guns  and  aerial 
torpedoes  which  figured  in  some  of  the  previous  "Holland" 
experimental  boats  had  disappeared,  the  only  offensive  weapon 
carried  being  a  torpedo  tube  in  the  bow. 

The  original  five  "Hollands"  were  followed  by  four  im- 
proved boats  known  as  Al,  A2,  A3,  and  A4:.  These  vessels, 
except  Al,  which  was  about  20  tons  smaller,  had  a  sub- 
merged displacement  of  about  200  tons,  and  while  of  rather 
less  diameter  than  the  earlier  boats,  were  nearly  forty  feet 


SUBMARINES    OF    TO-DAY 


169 


longer.  They  are  provided  with  12-cylinder  Wolseley  petrol 
engines  for  use  at  the  surface,  and  with  electric  motors  for 
navigating  below  water.  Thirteen  of  these  boats  were  built 
in  all,  but  the  last  nine  were  fifty  feet  longer  than  those 
which  preceded  them.  All  the  "  A  "  class  have  high  conning- 
towers  and  are  fitted  with  periscopes.  It  will  be  observed  that 
the  British  submarines  were  losing  their  original  porpoise-like 
form  and  approaching  more  nearly  to  the  long  spindle-shape 
favoured  by  the  French  designers.  The  next  batch  of  sub- 


A   SUBMARINE    OF    THE 


CLASS. 


marines,  the  "  B  "  class,  eleven  in  number,  are  of  very  nearly 
the  same  dimensions  as  the  later  "  A  "  boats,  but  they  displace 
300  tons  of  water  as  against  the  200  tons  displacement  of  the 
latter.  To  improve  their  seagoing  qualities  they  have  a  com- 
paratively high  built-up  platform  running  from  the  conning- 
tower  to  the  bow.  They  are  quicker  divers  than  the  "  A  " 
boats.  The  last  of  the  "  B  "  submarines  were  finished  and  in 
commission  by  the  beginning  of  1907.  Meanwhile  the  Ad- 
miralty had  determined  on  the  construction  of  still  larger 
under- water  craft,  and  eleven  boats,  to  be  known  as  the  "  C  " 
class,  were  ordered  in  1905  and  1906.  This  number  was  even- 


170          THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

tually  increased,  and  sixteen  of  these  now  appear  in  the  Navy 
List.  No.  18  has  just  been  launched,  and  several  others  are 
under  construction. 

Thanks  to  the  commendable  secrecy  which  is  preserved  with 
regard  to  our  newest  types  of  war-vessels,  full  details  of  the 
"  C  "  class  of  submarine  are  not  available.  It  may  be  said, 
however,  that  while  of  about  the  same  length  as  the  latest  "  B  " 
types,  they  have  an  increased  displacement,  speed,  and  range 
of  action.  At  the  surface  they  are  able  to  travel  at  14  knots, 
and  below  water  their  speed  is  proportionately  good.  They 
are  equipped  with  two  torpedo  tubes  and  have  an  extremely 
high  conning-tower,  which  is  probably  armour-plated.  It  is 
placed  right  in  the  centre  of  the  vessel,  and  from  it  a  narrow 
platform  for  use  when  at  the  surface  extends  some  way  fore 
and  aft.1 

FKANCE. — The  story  of  the  adoption  of  the  submarine  into 
the  French  Navy  is  by  no  means  such  a  straightforward  history 
as  that  we  have  just  related.  The  British  Admiralty  having 
decided  on  a  type,  bought  a  batch  of  identical  boats,  and  each 
successive  set  of  submarines  was  the  outcome  of  the  lessons 
learnt  by  the  experiments  carried  out  with  the  previous  set. 
The  French,  on  the  other  hand,  sought  for  perfection  in  various 
different  directions,  employing  different  designers  and  building 
a  variety  of  types.  Moreover,  their  submarine  fleet  is  divided 
into  two  classes :  submarines  proper  for  home  defence,  and 
submersibles  for  offensive  purposes.  The  difference  between 
the  two  types  may  be  shortly  stated  as  follows  :  "  The  genuine 
submarine  is  a  vessel  built  only  for  travelling  beneath  the 

1  According  to  the  Scientific  American  of  September  26th,  1908, 
the  "  D  "  class  will  be  of  an  entirely  different  type.  There  will 
be  no  superstructure,  it  states,  and  the  boat  "  comprises  three 
structures  built  side  by  side,  and  forming  one  unit.  Centrally 
placed  is  the  submarine  proper,  conforming  to  the  general  elongated 
craft  with  tapered  ends,  but  on  either  side,  like  outriggers,  are 
placed  two  smaller  cylindrical  structures  about  half  the  length  of 
the  central  section," 


SUBMAKINES    OF    TO-DAY 


171 


water  ;  electricity  stored  in  accumulators  is  the  motive  power, 
and  the  distance  which  can  be  covered  is  limited.  The 
submersible  torpedo-boat  is  constructed  with  a  petrol  or  other 
engine  for  use  when  on  the  surface,  and  only  at  the  last  practic- 
able moment,  probably  not  until  it  has  reached  the  scene  of 
action,  does  it  go  under  water  ;  submerged,  it  is  propelled,  like 
its  sister  ship  the  genuine  submarine,  by  electricity.  Conse- 
quently the  submersible  has  the  far  greater  radius  of  action."  1 
By  this  standard  it  will  be  seen  that  all  the  British  boats  belong 
to  the  last  category. 
As  we  have  seen  in  a  former  chapter,  the  Gustave  Zede 


THE    FRENCH    SUBMERSIBLE    "  NARVAL." 

turned  out  to  be  a  somewhat  disappointing  boat,  and  her 
designer,  M.  Romazzotti,  set  to  work  to  produce  an  im- 
proved copy.  This  was  the  Morse,  launched  at  Cherbourg 
in  1899,  after  being  some  years  under  construction,  thanks  to 
various  alterations  in  design  and  equipment  which  were  con- 
sidered to  be  improvements  on  what  had  originally  been 
intended.  The  Morse  was  very  like  her  predecessor,  and  was 
a  genuine  submarine  of  146  tons  displacement,  118  feet  long, 
and  9  feet  in  diameter  amidships.  She  carried  a  bow  torpedo 
tube,  and  dropping  gear  on  either  side  of  the  conning-tower. 


i  Mr.  Archibald  Kurd, 
teenth  Century. 


The  Success  of  the  Submarine." — Nine- 


172 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 


Her  trials  were  productive  of  good  results,  but  the  Minister 
of  Marine  considered  that  a  boat  of  the  submersible  type  should 
now  be  constructed.  But  during  the  time  she  was  being  built, 
M.  Lockroy,  the  famous  French  Minister  of  Marine,  had  in- 
stituted a  competition  in  which  prizes  were  offered  for  the  best 
designs  for  submarine  and  submersible  boats,  and  various 
appliances  connected  with  them.  The  principal  result  of  this 
competition  was  the  building  of  the  submersible  Narval  from 
the  designs  of  M.  Maxime  Labeuf,  Chief  Naval  Constructor  at 


THE    FRENCH    SUBMARINE 


Toulon.  This  vessel,  which  was  completed  in  the  year  1900, 
is  a  peculiar  craft  built  like  an  ordinary  torpedo-boat  with  a 
double  skin,  and  is  submerged  by  the  admission  of  water  into 
the  space  between  the  two  skins.  She  has  a  displacement  of 
106  tons,  and  is  not  cylindrical  in  shape  like  the  Morse  and  most 
other  submarines.  Her  upper  works  being  flat,  form  a  deck,  and 
the  conning-tower,  funnel,  and  periscope  project  above  this, 
giving  her  at  a  distance  a  novel  and  peculiar  appearance.  At 
the  surface  she  is  driven  by  a  triple-expansion  steam-engine 
whose  furnaces  burn  petroleum  fuel,  but  when  under  water 


SUBMARINES   OF    TO-DAY 


173 


she  has  recourse  to  an  electro-motor.  She  carries  four  White- 
heads  in  recesses  at  the  edges  of  her  upper  deck,  and  these 
can  be  swung  outwards  and  set  going  by  special  apparatus  con- 
trived by  M.  Drzewiecki.  The  principal  drawback  discovered 
in  the  Narval  in  the  course  of  her  trials  was  the  time  taken  to 
effect  submergence.  This  has  been  improved  in  later  models. 
Following  the  Narval  came  four  185-ton  submarines  of  what  is 
known  as  the  Farfadet  type,  designed  by  M.  Maugas,  driven 
entirely  by  electricity.  They  are  adaptations  of  the  Romaz- 


THE    FRENCH    SUBMARINE        BONITE." 

zotti  class  of  boat,  but  differ  a  good  deal  in  appearance  as  their 
conning-tower  is  very  far  forward.  Almost  simultaneously 
the  Francais  and  Algerien,  which  were  paid  for  out  of  a  public 
subscription  opened  by  the  Matin  at  the  time  of  the  Fashoda 
"  incident,"  were  completed.  They  may  be  regarded  as  im- 
proved Morses.  In  1902  two  improved  Narvals  were  finished, 
called  the  Triton  and  the  Sirene,  these  being  followed  by  Silure, 
Aigrette,  Espadon,  and  Cigogne,  also  Narvals,  but  of  course 
with  various  improvements  suggested  by  experiments  with  the 
older  boats  of  the  same  class.  Between  1904  and  1905  twenty 


174 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 


small  68-ton  boats,  really  little  Gustave  Zedes  with  certain  minor 
improvements,  were  completed.  These  are  known  as  the 
Perle  class,  and  are  provided  with  a  benzol  motor  for  use  at  the 
surface  and  an  electric  one  for  use  below.  They  have  a  surface 
speed  of  8  knots,  which  falls  to  4  or  5  when  submerged,  and 
carry  one  torpedo  tube  apiece.  They  can  well  be  called 
"  microbes  de  la  mer." 

After  this  big  batch  of  submarines  comes  an  era  of  experi- 
mental boats  again,  the  "  X  "  designed  by  M.  Romazzotti, 


THE   FRENCH   SUBMARINE    "  ALGERIEN." 


the  "  Y  "  by  M.  Bertin,  a  retired  naval  constructor,  the  "  Z  " 
by  M.  Maugas,  and  the  Omega  by  M.  Bertin.  The  "  X  "  is 
of  168  tons  displacement,  128  feet  long,  using  a  petrol  engine 
at  the  surface ;  the  "  Y  "  of  213  tons,  144  feet  long,  using 
compressed  air  engines ;  the  "  Z  "  of  202  tons,  136  feet  long, 
with  paraffin  engines ;  and  the  Omega  of  301  tons,  160  feet 
long,  having  steam  as  her  motive  power  when  above  water. 
All  these  four  are  of  greater  tonnage  when  submerged,  and 
in  this  condition  are  propelled  by  electricity  carried  in 
accumulators. 


SUBMARINES    OF    TO-DAY  175 

The  most  promising  of  the  boats  seems  to  have  been  the 
Omega.  In  1903  six  improved  and  larger  boats  of  somewhat 
the  same  description,  known  as  the  Emeraude  class,  were 
begun.  They  are  big  affairs  147  feet  long  with  a  displace- 
ment of  400  tons  apiece  at  the  surface.  They  have  eight- 
cylinder  petrol  engines,  and,  of  course,  accumulators  for 
driving  the  electric  motors  used  when  submerged.  They 
carry  a  complement  of  22  men.  Another  pair  of  boats 
somewhat  similar  to  the  Farfadets,  known  as  the  Guepe 
class,  were  begun  at  Cherbourg  in  1904  and  launched  three 


FBENCH   SUBMARINE    "  VENTOSE." 

years  later.  Their  principal  designer  is  M.  Petithomme,  a 
naval  constructor,  who  also  is  responsible  for  two  very  large 
boats  of  about  400  tons  displacement  which  were  begun  at 
the  same  port  in  the  same  year,  but  their  construction  has  been 
suspended.  M.  Labeuf,  the  designer  of  the  Narval,  is  respon- 
sible for  two  more  boats  which  were  to  be  built  in  1904.  These 
are  the  Circe  and  Calypso,  also  large  350-ton  submersibles, 
while  towards  the  end  of  1905  eighteen  still  larger  boats  de- 
signed by  him  were  commenced  at  the  various  dockyards, 
several  of  which  have  now  been  completed.  Before  quitting 
our  brief  notice  of  France's  submarine  fleet  we  may  just  men- 
tion that  the  Marquis  de  Dion,  the  well-known  constructor  of 


176 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 


automobiles,  has  designed  a  little  boat  something  after  the  style 
of  the  "  Goubets,"  which  is  intended  to  be  carried  on  board  ship. 
This  little  submarine  has  a  displacement  of  21  tons  only,  so 
it  must  be  quite  a  diminutive  affair  as  submarines  now  go. 
Finally  we  have  to  record  that  a  boat  invented  by  a  M.  Thuau 
— which  seems  to  be  almost  an  exact  copy  of  the  Goubet 
(externally  at  any  rate) — went  through  what  are  said  to  have 
been  very  successful  trials  at  Saint-Malo  in  September  1904  ; 
but  here  her  achievements  would  appear  to  have  stopped 
short,  as  we  hear  no  more  of  her. 


GERMAN    "  HOWALT  "    SUBMARINE. 

GERMANY. — This  country,  as  we  have  seen,  has  made  a 
belated  appearance  in  the  sphere  of  submarine  construction. 
We  have  noticed  the  two  boats  of  the  "  Nordenfeldt "  type  with 
which  she  carried  out  her  early  and  secret  experiments,  and 
now  we  find  her  slowly  going  ahead  again  in  1901  with  a  little 
submarine  built  by  Messrs.  Howalt  of  Kiel.  She  was  not 
quite  50  feet  long,  with  a  little  over  six  feet  beam.  She  was 
electrically  propelled,  and  fitted  with  a  single  torpedo  tube 
at  the  extreme  bow  of  her  cigar-like  hull.  She  was  tried,  but 
with  very  mediocre  results,  in  1902.  The  Germans,  always 


SUBMARINES   OF    TO-DAY 


177 


watching  the  progress  of  British  naval  affairs,  now  considered 
that  they  might  do  worse  than  follow  our  example  in  experi- 
menting with  the  "  Holland  "  type.  One  of  these,  of  120  tons 
displacement,  said  to  very  much  resemble  our  own  early 
"  Hollands,"  was  launched  at  Kiel  in  1902,  and  has  since  been 
experimented  with,  though,  of  course,  the  Germans  have  not 
allowed  any  of  her  performances  to  leak  out.  They  then  set 
to  work  and  built  a  still  larger  boat,  128  feet  long,  and  with 
180  tons  displacement.  No  particulars  as  to  her  launch  or 
trials  are  procurable,  but  it  is  certain  that  she  was  a  boat  of 


THE  "  D'EQUEVILLEY  "  OB  "  GERMANIA  "  SUBMARINE. 

a  new  class  designed  by  a  Spanish  engineer  of  the  name  of 
d'Equevilley.  This  vessel,  which  in  form  is  not  very  unlike 
an  ordinary  torpedo-boat,  was  built  from  his  designs  in  the 
Germania  Yard  at  Kiel,  and  was  followed  by  three  similar  ones. 
D'Equevilley  had  previously  built  a  similar  boat  at  this  yard 
for  the  Russian  Government,  and  it  is  probable  that  her  trials 
ao  favourably  impressed  the  German  naval  critics  that  they 
determined  to  try  the  type  for  themselves.  The  new  boat  is 
said  to  contain  some  very  striking  improvements  in  submarine 
navigation,  but  few,  if  any,  details  are  available.  Four 
additional  ones  are  to  be  ready  by  the  end  of  1909. 
As  Germany  is  also  said  to  have  placed  an  order  for  four 

12 


178          THE    STORY   OF    THE   SUBMARINE 

"  Lake  "  submarines  at  Baltimore,  it  is  evident  that  though 
"  last,"  she  does  not  intend  to  be  "  least "  among  the  Great 
Powers  in  the  race  for  submarine  predominance.  These 
boats  will  doubtless  be  improved  Protectors  similar  to 
those  ordered  by  the  Russian  Government.1 

1   Vide  p.  184,  Chapter  XIV.,  for  description. 


CHAPTER    XIV 

SUBMARINES  OP  TO-DAY  (continued). 


179 


CHAPTER   XIV 

SUBMARINES  OF  TO-DAY  (continued) 

The  submarines  of  the  United  States,  Russian,  Italian,  Japanese  and 
some  minor  Navies. 

THE  UNITED  STATES. — The  "  Holland"  boat  was  adopted  by  the 
United  States  Navy  just  before  we  ourselves  took  it  up.  Their 
first  boat  was  Holland's  ninth  experimental  submarine,  and 
was  purchased  by  the  Government  for  150,000  dollars.  Sub- 
merged she  has  a  displacement  of  74  tons,  is  53  feet  10  inches 
long,  and  11  feet  in  diameter.  She  is  fitted  with  petrol  four- 
cylinder  engines  for  surface  work,  and  uses  electricity  for  pro- 
pulsion when  below  water.  In  other  respects  she  is  very  much 
like  Holland  No.  VIII  described  in  Chapter  XII. 

Seven  "  Hollands"  of  the  Adder  type,  practically  identical 
with  our  first  five  submarines,  followed,  and  then  their  designer 
built  a  very  similar  trial  vessel  with  which  to  carry  out  further 
experiments  on  his  own  account.  She  was  called  the  Fulton, 
and  in  the  autumn  of  1901  this  boat,  with  seven  officers  and 
men  on  board,  remained  at  the  bottom  of  Peconie  Bay  for 
fifteen  hours  without  renewing  her  air  supply  even  from  the 
flasks  of  compressed  air  taken  down  for  the  purpose.  During 
all  this  time  a  perfect  gale  was  raging  at  the  surface.  Her 
diving  qualities  were  so  satisfactory  that  it  is  said  she  could 
plunge  quickly  enough  to  avoid  a  shell  fired  at  not  too  close 
a  range.  He  followed  up  the  Fulton  by  the  Plunger,  a  very 
similar  vessel  which  differs  in  appearance  from  other  "  Hol- 
lands "  on  account  of  having  a  queer  cupola-like  conning-tower 

181 


182 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 


quite  different  from  those  of  her  elder  sisters.  But  while  care- 
fully watching  these  experimental  boats  and  at  the  same  time 
carrying  out  extensive  trials  with  one  of  Simon  Lake's  Pro- 
tectors,1 the  United  States  Government  ordered  the  con- 
struction of  four  peculiar  "  semi-submersibles  "  invented  by 
Mr.  Clarence  C.  Burger.  The  well-known  French  naval  journal 
Le  Yacht  claims  that  M.  Drzewiecki  had  a  hand  in  this  design, 
but  this  is  probably  a  mistake.  Burger's  boat  has  practically 
two  hulls.  Underneath  and  well  out  of  harm's  way  is  the  cigar- 
shaped  submarine,  containing  engines,  accumulators,  and 
torpedoes,  while  above,  and  connected  only  by  a  species  of 


BURGER'S  SEMI-SUBMARINE. 

hollow  keel  and  the  armoured  conning-tower,  is  a  flat  hull 
packed  with  cellulose,  minutely  subdivided  into  small  water- 
tight compartments,  and  very  difficult  to  hit  or  destroy.  The 
torpedo  tube  is  right  forward  in  the  lower  hull ;  the  three 
propellers — all  on  one  shaft — are  placed  below  the  after  end, 
while  the  rudder  is  pivoted  between  the  upper  and  lower 
portions  of  the  vessel.  A  considerable  speed  is  expected  to  be 
realised  by  these  queer  craft. 

Another  extremely  small  submarine,  the  invention  of  Mr. 
T.  J.  Moriarty,  a  mechanical  expert  in  Government  employ, 
is  also  said  to  have  been  experimented  with.  It  is  only 
10  feet  long,  3  feet  deep,  and  5  feet  wide.  It  seems 

1  A  special  board  of  officers  reported  favourably  on  this  boat  in 
1904  and  recommended  that  five  should  be  purchased. 


SUBMARINES   OF    TO-DAY  183 

not  very  unlike  Holland's  first  boat,  and,  like  that  little 
submarine,  is  propelled  by  pedalling.  Judging  by  the 
general  tendency  of  submarines  to  increase  in  size  as  more 
is  learnt  about  their  capabilities  and  requirements  in  the 
long  course  of  experiments  which  have  been  carried  out  in 
Europe  and  America,  it  does  not  appear  likely  that  this  microbe 
will  displace  the  submarine  monsters  already  built. 

Finally  we  must  not  omit  to  mention  the  Octopus  and 
Cuttlefish,  two  big  submarines  which  were  launched  at  Quincey, 
Massachusetts,  about  the  end  of  last  year.  Absolute  secrecy 
is  being  maintained  as  to  their  interior  arrangements,  but 
externally  they  bear  a  strong  resemblance  to  the  "  Holland  " 
boats.  The  American  spread-eagle  press  claims  for  them  that 
they  are  the  largest  submarines  in  the  world;  but  this  is 
absurdly  incorrect,  as  the  Octopus,  the  bigger  of  the  two,  is 
only  106  feet  long  with  a  displacement  of  278  tons,  while  the 
other  is  but  80  feet  6  inches  long  with  a  displacement  of  170 
tons  only.  Two  others  of  the  Cuttlefish  class  are  said  to  be 
under  construction  as  well  as  one  of  the  Lake  Protectors, 
eight  others  of  this  type  being  projected. 

RUSSIA. — It  is  impossible  to  give  any  very  accurate  and 
succinct  account  of  the  rise  of  the  Russian  submarine  flotilla 
as,  owing  doubtless  to  strict  censorship  on  the  part  of  the 
authorities,  very  little  reliable  information  seems  to  have 
leaked  out.  The  consequence  is  that  no  two  authorities  are  in 
anything  like  agreement.  As  an  instance,  one  well-known 
publication  gives  the  submarine  Forel  as  a  Lake  boat  of  the 
Protector  class.  Another  authority  says  that  the  Forel  is  a 
sister  boat  to  the  Petr  Kotcha,  quite  a  different  type ;  while 
according  to  a  French  Service  journal  the  Forel  is  the  name 
given  to  the  first  of  the  d'Equevilley  boats  built  at  Kiel  for 
the  Russian  Government. 

One  thing  is  certain,  and  that  is  that  the  Russian  Admiralty 
have  had  a  leaning  towards  submarine  warfare  ever  since  the 
Crimean  War,  and.  as  we  have  seen  in  some  earlier  chapters, 


184  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

have  experimented  rather  largely  with  submarine  boats 
from  time  to  time.  Not  with  any  great  amount  of  success, 
however,  for  the  Russian,  except  on  a  few  occasions  when  he 
has  been  commanded  by  English  or  Scots  officers,  has  always 
proved  a  poor  sailor-man.  It  is  therefore  quite  natural  that 
he  should  not  shine  in  submarine  navigation,  which  requires 
care,  nerve,  and  quickness  of  resource  in  a  very  high  degree. 
Several  modern  submarines  were  available  in  the  Far  East  at 
the  time  of  the  war  with  Japan,  but  the  navy  made  no  use 
of  them  whatever,  and  probably  spoilt  more  than  one.  At 
the  present  time  Russia  appears  to  have  a  considerable  number 
of  submarines  of  one  sort  and  another,  as  will  be  seen  by  the 
list  in  Appendix  II.  The  best  of  these  are  probably  the 
d'Equevilley  boats,  some  of  which  are  described  under  the 
heading  of  "  Germany."  Then  there  are  said  to  be  half  a 
dozen  "  Hollands  "  which  ought  to  be  effective  vessels,  and 
lastly,  but  by  no  means  least,  the  Russian  Navy  is  in  possession 
of  a  number  of  the  very  successful  Lake  boats  of  the  Protector 
class,  including  the  original  Protector  herself. 

TLis  type  of  boat,  which  has  recently  been  considerably 
improved,  '  probably  a  great  future  before  it.  Direct 
descendant-.  e  Argonai^j,  they  possess  advantages  which 

are  practically  unique.  They  can  not  only  swim  but  travel 
along  the  bottom  on  wheels.  The  crew  need  not  fear  being 
buried  r1'  ^e,  like  the  unfortunates  in  the  Lutin  when  she 
foundered  off  Biserta,  because  ingress  and  egress  when  under 
water  is  perfectly  practicable  and  easy.  The  Protectors, 
instead  of  being  cigar-shaped  like  most  submarines,  are  very 
much  the  same  shape  as  an  ordinary  ship's  hull  with  a  ram 
bow  (some  of  the  Russian  boats  have  a  straight  cutwater). 
The  original  Protector  is  about  70  feet  hng,  11  feet  beam, 
and  has  a  submerged  displacement  of  170  tons.  She  has  a  flat 
upper  deck,  in  the  centre  of  which  rises  an  elliptical  conning- 
tower  with  perpendicular  walls  of  bronze,  above  which  rises 
an  armoured  sighting  hood,  The  motive  power  is  furnished 


SUBMARINES    OF    TO-DAY 


185 


by  gasoline  engines  actuating  twin  screws  when  running  awash 
or  at  the  surface,  and  by  means  of  storage  batteries  when 
submerged  ;  11  knots  has  been  realised  when  in  the  former 
position  and  seven  when  under  water.  Tanks  of  air  under 
high  compression  can  supply  enough  air  for  six  men  for  sixty 
hours.  The  Protector  is  armed  with  three  torpedo  tubes, 
one  aft  and  one  on  either  bow,  firing  18-inch  Whiteheads. 
Like  several  other  submarines,  when  about  to  dive  she  obtains 
an  equilibrium  in  the  water  by  filling  ballast  tanks  with 


THE    RUSSIAN    SUBMARINE    "  OSSETYR  "    (ex    "  PROTECTOR1'). 

water,  and  then  overcomes  her  reserve  buoyancy  by  using 
"  hydroplanes,"  which  in  her  case  are  situated  amidships  at 
the  edge  of  the  upper  deck.  A  unique  feature  of  the  Protector 
is  that  she  is  able  to  travel  on  the  sea-floor,  being  equipped 
with  two  large  steel  wheels  which  are  fitted  on  the  keel  line, 
one  in  advance  of  the  other,  and  which  may  be  raised  or 
lowered  at  will  by  means  of  hydraulic  pistons.  The  propellers 
continue  to  push  the  vessel  forward  when  she  is  resting  upon 
her  wheels  just  as  they  do  when  she  is  water-borne.  When 
raised,  the  wheels  fold  back  into  recesses  in  the  bottom  of  the 
ship.  Right  forward  she  has  a  diving  compartment  which 
allows  divers  to  enter  and  leave  her  below  water,  and  from 


186  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

which  the  bottom  can  be  examined  through  a  thick  sheet  of 
glass. 

JAPAN. — As  we  know  that  Russia  had  at  least  a  few  sub- 
marines in  the  Far  East  at  the  time  of  the  Japanese  War, 
and  it  was  also  reported  that  Japan  obtained  five  of  the 
"  Holland"  type  from  the  United  States  about  that  period,  it 
seems  strange  that  we  should  have  heard  absolutely  nothing 
of  any  attempt  to  make  an  offensive  use  of  them  by  either  one 
side  or  the  other.  However,  there  it  is.  The  five  Japanese 
boats  referred  to  were  built  at  the  Fore  River  Works,  Massa- 
chusetts, and  shipped  out  to  Japan  in  sections,  and  it  is  prob- 
able that  these  were  the  five  submarines  that  appeared  at  the 
naval  review  before  the  Mikado  at  Tokio  in  October  1905. 
Two  small  submarines  were  built  in  Japan  in  1906,  and  in 
addition  to  these,  six  or  seven  newer  submarines  are  under 
construction,  two  of  which  have  been  completed  at  Barrow 
by  Messrs.  Vickers,  Sons  &  Maxim  and  been  shipped  out  to 
Japan.  These  are  big  vessels  of  over  300  tons  displacement 
carrying  a  couple  of  torpedo  tubes  apiece,  and  intended  to 
have  a  surface  speed  of  14  knots  an  hour.  We  may  be  sure 
that,  having  adopted  the  submarine  torpedo-boat,  Japan  will 
not  rest  till  her  submarine  flotilla  is  as  formidable  in  pro- 
portion as  the  rest  of  her  fine  fleet ;  in  fact  it  has  been  stated 
that  she  hopes  to  have  no  less  than  50  effective  submarines 
by  1915. 

ITALY. — We  have  already  referred  to  the  Pullino  or  Delfino, 
an  Italian  submarine  launched  in  1892  and  improved  in  1894. 
The  Italia  Militaire  e  Marina  of  1904,  however,  referred  to  it 
as  a  new  vessel  which  had  only  completed  her  trials  at  Spezzia 
on  August  30  in  that  year.  The  hull  of  this  Delfino  is  con- 
structed of  steel  plates  and  is  in  the  form  of  a  cigar.  Her 
displacement  varies,  according  to  her  immersion,  from  95 
to  107  tons.  Her  engines  are  worked  solely  by  electricity 
furnished  by  300  accumulators.  She  has  three  propellers  : 
one  aft  for  movement  ahead  or  astern,  and  the  other  two 


SUBMARINES   OF    TO-DAY 


187 


above  for  the  work  of  submersion  and  bringing  her  to  the 
surface  again.  The  Tritone  is  another  smaller  Italian  sub- 
marine invented  by  Captain  Ferrari,  a  naval  officer,  and 
launched  at  Spezzia  in  1902.  She  is  nearly  59  feet  long, 
has  a  single  screw,  and  has  a  speed  of  8  knots  above  and 
5  below  water.  She  carries  a  crew  of  five  men.  Further 
details  of  her  construction  are  not  obtainable.  But  the  most 
important  Italian  submarines  are  the  set  of  five  Glaucos, 
invented  by  M.  Cesare  Laurenti,  constructed  between  1903 
and  1905.  These  boats,  which  were  built  at  Venice,  are  fitted 


THE    ITALIAN    SUBMARINE    "  NARVALO." 

with  F.I.A.T.  petrol  twelve-cylinder  engines  for  surface  work, 
which  are  said  to  drive  them  at  14  knots  an  hour.  Below- 
water  propulsion  is  by  electricity,  the  rate  of  progress  falling 
to  9*9  knots.  They  each  carry  a  single  torpedo  tube.  There 
is  a  boat,  the  Foca,  just  launched  which  will  have  a  dis- 
placement of  175  to  220  tons,  be  130  feet  long,  and  have 
a  speed — it  is  hoped — of  15  knots. 

SWEDEN. — This  country  has  a  couple  of  submarines,  but 
one  only — the  Hajen — is  supposed  to  belong  to  the  Royal 
Navy.  This  vessel,  built  at  Stockholm  in  1904,  is  a  boat  of  a 
modified  "  Holland  "  type.  She  is  of  about  120  tons  displace- 
ment, steams  10  knots  above  and  7  below  water,  She  has  the 


188 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 


now  usual  petrol  engines  and  electric  accumulators,  carries  one 
torpedo  tube  and  a  crew  of  six  men.  The  other  submarine 
to  which  reference  has  been  made  is  built  from  the  designs  of 
Herr  Enroth,  and  appears  to  be,  generally  speaking,  a  modern- 
ised "  Nordenfeldt."  The  inventor  claims  that  she  will  steam 
at  12  knots  above  and  only  half  a  knot  less  below  water.  She 
is  a  biggish  vessel  of  over  140  tons  displacement,  82  feet  long 
with  a  beam  of  14  feet.  She  carries  torpedo  tubes  both  at 
bow  and  stern.  Two  improved  Hajens  are  projected. 


THE  DUTCH  SUBMARINE  "  LUCTOB  ET  EMERGO." 

AUSTRIA  has  two  submarines  building  at  Barrow,  probably 
"  Hollands,"  four  Protectors  in  her  own  dockyards,  and  three 
"  d'Equevilley  "  boats  at  Kiel. 

NORWAY. — The  Norwegian  Navy  only  possesses  one  sub- 
marine at  present,  which  is  a  "  Holland,"  probably  of  the  Fulton 
type.  She  does  not  intend  to  rest  content  with  this  single 
specimen,  as  Admiral  Borresen  has  demanded  of  Parliament 
a  considerable  sum  for  further  submarine  construction,  and 
both  a  F.I.A.T.  and  a  "  d'Equevilley  "  boat  are  ordered. 

HOLLAND. — Holland,  like  Norway,  has  only  one  submarine. 
This  is  the  Luctor  et  Emergo,  a  "  Holland  "  boat,  probably  of 
the  Plunger  type. 


SUBMARINES   OF   TO-DAY  189 

PORTUGAL. — In  addition  to  the  Pkngeur  already  mentioned,1 
Portugal  is  experimenting  with  another  submarine,  the 
Fontes  HI,  designed  by  the  same  naval  officer — Lieutenant 
Fontes — who  is  responsible  for  the  earlier  boat. 

SPAIN  has  the  Peral,  probably  not  now  of  any  use  at  all. 

BRAZIL  has  two  "  Goubet "  boats,  the  Mdlo  Marques  and 
Jacinto  Gomez.  Launched  about  1903,  they  have  a  dis- 
placement of  about  25  tons  and  are  said  to  have  a  speed  of 
6  knots  when  on  the  surface.  It  is  reported  that  the  Brazilian 
Government  are  about  to  purchase  five  of  the  "  Holland  " 
boats. 

ARGENTINA  is  said  to  have  a  small  electrically  propelled 
submarine  of  native  design.  Details  are  wanting.  Several 
"  Hollands  "  are  projected. 

CHILI  also  is  reported  to  have  a  small  electric  submarine 
under  construction.  Its  name  is  the  Urzua  Curat. 

This  concludes  the  enumeration  of  the  submarine  flotillas 
belonging  to  the  navies  of  the  present  day.  No  mention  is 
made  of  Turkey  and  Greece  which,  as  we  have  seen,  used  to 
be  in  possession  of  "  Nordenfeldt "  submarines.  If  they  have 
these  now,  they  can  be  worth  nothing  more  than  scrap-iron. 
The  nations  that  have  not  been  noticed  have  as  yet  evinced 
no  tendency  to  build  up  a  submarine  squadron.  They  prefer 
to  await  further  developments  in  under-water  navigation 
and  warfare. 

1   Vide  Chapter  XII. 


CHAPTER   XV 

SUBMARINE  WEAPONS 


191 


CHAPTER   XV 
SUBMARINE  WEAPONS 

Automatic  Submarines — The  Whitehead  torpedo — The  "  Schwartz- 
kopf  "  torpedo — The  Howell,  Peck,  Hall  and  Berdan  torpedoes 
— Brennan's  Wire-controlled  torpedo — Other  similar  devices — 
The  Orling- Armstrong  "  Actinaut  "  torpedo  and  "  Armorl  " 
boat. 

"  A  TORPEDO  may  be  defined  as  an  explosive  case,  which  may 
be  fired  either  automatically  by  concussion,  or  at  the  will 
of  the  user,  and  which  is  stationary  under  water  or  travels 
through  the  water.  Some  travelling  torpedoes  are  moved 
by  being  towed,  others  by  the  working  of  independent  ma- 
chinery concealed  within  them,  others  by  being  carried  at 
a  boat's  bow,  or  pushed ;  and  yet  others  by  a  controlling 
power  worked  from  the  shore  or  from  some  other  fixed 
station."  l 

This  definition  of  the  various  types  of  torpedoes,  written 
some  years  ago,  is  a  very  good  and  concise  one,  but  nowadays 
those  which  are  stationary  are  generally  called  mines,  those 
which  were  "  pushed  " — that  is  to  say,  spar-torpedoes — are 
practically  obsolete,  and  the  word  "  torpedo  "  is  now  generally 
understood  to  refer  only  to  those  which  "  travel  through  the 
water." 

Such  torpedoes,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  are  small 
automatic  or  semi-automatic  submarine  boats,  without  a 
pilot  or  crew,  and  as  such  may  be  considered  to  come  within 

1  *'  All  About  the  Royal  Navy,"  p.  55.     Laird  Clowes. 
193  13 


194  THE    STORY   OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

the  range  of  our  subject.  In  any  case  they  are  so  intimately 
connected  with  it,  as  being  the  only  weapons  carried  by  modern 
submarine  vessels,  that  some  description  of  their  various  types 
cannot  but  be  of  interest. 

By  far  the  most  important  is  the  Whitehead  Automobile 
Torpedo,  from  its  efficiency  and  from  its  almost  universal 
adoption.  Mr.  Whitehead  was  an  English  civil  engineer 
settled  in  Austria.  There  is  nothing  to  show  that  he  had 
ever  given  any  attention  to  torpedo  warfare  before  he  was  con- 
sulted by  a  certain  Captain  Lupuis  with  reference  to  an  idea 
which  he  had  for  a  species  of  fireship  or  surface  torpedo. 
This  was  in  1864.  The  proposed  weapon  was  a  crude  affair, 
much  like  an  ordinary  small  boat  in  shape,  its  propeller  driven 
by  clockwork,  and  its  steering  effected  by  means  of  ropes 
from  the  shore.  The  forepart  was  to  be  filled  with  powder 
which  was  to  be  exploded  by  a  pistol  whose  trigger  was  con- 
nected with  small  vertical  and  horizontal  spars  which  pro- 
truded from  the  bow  and  would  come  in  contact  with  the  side 
of  the  ship  to  be  attacked.  The  idea  was  a  very  rough  and 
ready  one,  not  of  much  value  in  itself ;  but  it  set  Mr.  White- 
head's  brain  to  work,  and  in  two  years  he  produced  his  first 
fish-torpedo.  From  this  point  Lupuis  and  his  fireship  go 
out  of  the  story,  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  this  was  the 
germ  from  which  has  been  evolved  the  automobile  torpedo  of 
to-day  with  its  wonderful  mechanism,  long  range,  and  heavy 
charge  of  high,  explosive.  Whitehead's  first  torpedo  was 
made  of  boiler-plate,  carried  18  Ib.  of  dynamite,  and  had 
a  speed  of  6  knots  for  a  very  short  distance.  Compare 
this  with  the  latest  type  in  use  in  our  Navy,  which  has  a 
speed  of  35  knots  for  1000  yards,  is  efficacious  at  3000,  and 
carries  a  charge  of  about  200  Ib.  of  guncotton.1 

"  This  torpedo  is  a  wonderful  piece  of  mechanism,  beautifully 

1  With  the  compressed  air  which  drives  it,  heated  by  the  new 
apparatus  which  has  been  invented  for  the  purpose,  it  is  capable 
of  a  speed  of  43  knots  for  1000  yards  and  30  for  4000. 


AUTOMATIC    TOBQEDOES. 

A.  Lupuis'  Automatic  Fireship,  1864,  from  which  the  first  Whitehead  was  evolved. 

B.  Early  Whitehead,  1870.     Speed,  8  knots.     Range,  400  yards.     Charge,  76  Ib.  Guncotton. 

C.  Modern  Whitehead  (18-inch).     Speed,  35  knots  for  1000  yards  ;   20  knots  for  4000.     With 

Heated  Air,  43  knots  for  1000  yards,  30  knots  for  4000.     Charge,  200  Ib.  explosive. 

D.  Modern  "  Schwartzkopf  "  (18 -inch).     Speed  about  32  knots.     Range,  3000  yards.     Charge, 

210  Ib.  explosive. 

E.  Howell  Torpedo  (13'3-inch).     Speed,  24  knots  for  600  yards.     Range,  1000  yards.     Charge, 

70  Ib.  explosive. 

P.    Bliss-Leavitt  Torpedo  (21-inch).     Speed,  36  knots  for  1200  yards ;  28  knots  for  3500  yards. 
Turbine  engines.     Charge,  133  Ib.  explosive. 


196  THE    STOKY    OF    THE    SUBMAEINE 

made  and  put  together.  When  once  discharged  from  the 
ship  it  steers  itself  to  the  required  depth  under  water  and 
maintains  that  depth  during  the  time  it  is  running.  This  is 
attained  by  a  horizontal  rudder  on  the  tail  end,  which  is  con- 
trolled by  a  most  ingenious  combination  of  a  hydrostatic 
valve  and  a  pendulum  weight.  These,  working  together, 
counteract  a  too  violent  action  of  each  individually.  Thus 
if  the  torpedo  runs  below  its  allotted  depth  the  valve  at  once 
puts  the  rudder  '  hard  up,'  the  nose  of  the  torpedo  turns 
rapidly  towards  the  surface,  and  would  shoot  out  of  the  water 
like  a  porpoise  ;  but  the  same  motion  causes  the  pendulum 
weight  to  swing  towards  the  after  end  of  the  torpedo,  and  this 
has  the  effect  of  reducing  the  action  of  the  rudder,  giving  a 
gentle  rise  to  the  torpedo,  which  vanishes  as  the  valve  resumes 
its  equilibrium,  when  the  proper  depth  for  the  torpedo  to 
run  at  is  reached.  Another  very  ingenious  arrangement 
about  it  is  the  '  pistol '  which  fits  into  the  head  and  forms 
the  nose  or  point.  When  attacking  an  enemy  its  duty  is  to 
explode  the  guncotton  or  dynamite  charge  contained  in  the 
head  of  the  torpedo  on  contact.  There  is  a  steel  rod  with 
pin-point,  held  by  a  trigger  against  a  spring  from  plunging 
into  a  detonator  cap  inserted  in  the  centre  of  the  charge.  This 
trigger  is  released  by  a  blow  on  the  nose  of  the  torpedo,  and 
in  case  of  any  mistake  occurring  so  that  the  torpedo  was 
fired  with  the  port  closed,  or  that  it  struck  any  part  of  the 
ship  firing  it,  there  is  a  safety  arrangement  which  practically 
'  half-cocks '  the  pistol  till  the  torpedo  has  run  some  30 
yards  or  so  from  the  ship.  This  is  a  small  collar  with  pro- 
peller fans  on  it.  The  motion  through  the  water  causes  the 
fans  to  turn  and  so  works  the  collar  off  to  the  danger  position."  x 

British  torpedoes  are  in  addition  fitted  with  a  net-cutting 
apparatus  so  as  to  be  able  to  go  through  the  steel  nets  which 
a  ship  at  anchor  may  use  to  protect  herself  from  their  attack. 

1  Lieutenant  Fenton,  R.N.,  in  "  Navy  and  Army  Illustrated," 
vol.  vi.  p.  188. 


SUBMAKINE    WEAPONS  197 

The  propellers  of  a  Whitehead  are  close  together  at  the  extreme 
end  of  the  torpedo,  the  outer  one  being  on  a  shaft  which  passes 
through  the  hollow  one  to  which  the  inner  one  is  affixed,  and 
both  revolve  in  opposite  directions  at  a  tremendous  rate. 
The  motive  power  is  compresed  air  and  the  engines  are  of 
the  "  brotherhood  "  type,  three  cylinders  being  placed  at  an 
equal  distance  apart  like  the  spokes  of  a  wheel  and  their  pistons 
working  towards  the  centre.  These  will  probably  be  replaced 
by  turbines  in  the  near  future.  The  United  States  Navy  has 
already  begun  to  provide  itself  with  the  huge  "  Bliss-Leavitt  " 
fish-torpedoes,  21  inches  in  diameter,  which  are  driven  by 
turbine  engines  and  can  maintain  a  speed  of  36  knots  for 
1200  yards.  The  accuracy  of  the  Whitehead  torpedo  has 
been  much  improved  of  recent  years  by  the  adoption  of  a 
gyroscope,  which,  running  at  the  immense  speed  of  2200 
revolutions  a  minute,  greatly  assists  the  hydrostatic  valve 
and  pendulum  in  their  work  of  keeping  the  weapon  on  a 
direct  course. 

The  latest  improvement  which  is  now  being  experimented 
with,  is  an  arrangement  for  heating  the  compressed  air  which 
is  used  to  drive  the  engines,  and  which  greatly  increases  both 
the  speed  and  range  of  the  torpedo. 

The  "  Schwartzkopf  "  l  torpedo  is  almost  identical  with  the 
Whitehead,  its  principal  difference  being  that  it  is  made 
almost  entirely  of  phoshpor-bronze  instead  of  steel.  It  is 
used  by  the  German  Navy  and  some  minor  ones. 

The  Americans  at  one  period  thought  that  they  had  got 
hold  of  an  improvement  on  the  Whitehead  in  the  Howell  fish- 
torpedo,  which  is  propelled  by  setting  a  heavy  flywheel  in 
motion  which  gears  directly  on  to  the  shafts  of  two  twin  screws, 
one  on  either  side  of  the  rudder.  The  range  claimed  for  this 
torpedo  was  1000  yards,  wilich  was  more  than  that  of  the 
Whitehead  at  this  period  ;  but  500  was  about  as  much  as  could 
be  depended  upon,  and  the  rival  torpedo  has  since  made  such 
i  i,e.  "  Black  head." 


198  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

gigantic  strides  in  efficiency  that  the  Ho  well,  though  still  in 
use,  will  not  improbably  be  superseded  by  it.  Three  other 
automobile  torpedoes  have  been  experimented  with,  but  as 
none  of  them  has  been  adopted  by  a  Naval  Power,  a  passing 
notice  will  be  sufficient.  These  are  the  Peck  and  Hall,  which 
were  intended  to  be  propelled  by  steam,  and  the  Berdan,  an 
ingenious  invention  of  the  Russian  General  of  that  name.  It 
really  consisted  of  two  fish-torpedoes,  one  of  which  towed 
the  other.  On  the  first  one  coming  in  contact  with  a  ship's 
defensive  net,  the  one  in  tow  dived  down  and  came  up  inside, 
against  the  bottom  of  the  ship.  The  same  officer  patented 
another  somewhat  similar  notion  for  evading  the  net  defence. 
This  was  a  torpedo-boat  fitted  with  a  species  of  long  buffer 
at  the  bow  and  two  vertical  torpedo  tubes,  one  on  each  side, 
near  the  stern.  When  the  buffer  touched  the  side  of  the  ship 
to  be  attacked  the  torpedoes  were  discharged,  and,  each 
connected  by  a  rope  to  a  protruding  peg  or  bar  near  the  bows 
of  the  boat,  swung  downwards  under  the  net  and  upwards 
against  the  enemy's  side.  The  old  spar-torpedo  was  simpler 
and  at  least  as  efficacious,  without  being  any  more  dangerous 
to  the  attacking  boat. 

Besides  the  absolutely  automatic  class  of  torpedo  which 
we  have  just  described,  there  have  been  several  kinds  which, 
while  sharing  in  the  general  resemblance  to  a  submarine  boat, 
have  yet  relied  on  operators  stationed  on  shore  for  guidance, 
direction,  and  in  some  cases  motive  force.  The  one  which 
has  had  the  most  successful  career,  so  far,  is  the  Brennan,  a 
big  fish-like  affair  that  is  driven  and  steered  by  means  of  strong 
piano-wire  coiled  on  drums  connected  with  its  two  propeller- 
shafts.  The  shore  ends  of  these  wires  are  wound  on  other 
drums  driven  by  a  steam-engine.  The  faster  they  are  wound 
up  the  faster  runs  the  torpedo  ;  if  one  wire  is  wound  faster 
than  the  other  it  is  obvious  that  one  propeller  will  revolve 
faster  than  the  other  and  the  direction  of  the  Brennan  be  altered. 
In  this  way  it  can  be  guided  to  the  right  or  left  within  a  radius 


SUBMARINE    WEAPONS 


199 


WIRE- CONTROLLED    TORPEDOES. 

A.  The  "  Erennan."  C.  The  "  Sims- Edison." 

B.  The  "  Automobile."  D.    The  "  Victoria." 

of  40  degrees,  and  so  can  follow  01  intercept  an  enemy's  ship 
that  comes  within  range  although  she  herself  may  change 
her  direction  time  after  time.  The  Brennan  is  therefore  a 


200          THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

very  formidable  weapon  for  harbour  defence  or  for  use  in 
narrow  waters,  and  it  was  adopted  for  this  purpose  in  1882 
by  the  British  Government.  The  inventor,  who  was  a  Mel- 
bourne watchmaker,  was  paid  a  retaining  fee  of  £5,000  and 
a  salary  of  £2000  a  year  for  three  years,  with  all  expenses 
incurred  in  the  perfection  of  his  invention.  He  afterwards 
received  a  lump  sum  of  £110,000  and  a  salary  of  £1500  for 
five  years.1  So  he  did  better  with  his  invention  than  most 
of  the  inventors  whose  schemes  have  been  dealt  with  in  this 
little  work. 

Like  the  Whitehead,  the  Brennan  has  an  apparatus  for 
keeping  her  at  the  proper  depth,  but  she  carries  a  much 
heavier  charge.  One  of  the  earliest  models  contained  no  less 
than  300  Ib.  of  blasting  gelatine,  and  we  may  be  sure  that 
later  types  were  no  less  but  probably  more  formidable.  The 
following  is  an  account  of  an  experiment  carried  out  with 
a  Brennan  mounted  at  Cliff  End  Fort  in  the  Isle  of  Wight  : 

"  An  old  merchant  brig  was  towed  at  a  speed  of  9  knots,  and 
at  a  distance  of  1200  yards,  past  the  fort.  When  she  was  nearly 
abreast  of  it  a  Brennan  was  launched.  At  an  immense  rate  of 
speed,  the  torpedo,  leaping  like  a  great  fish  in  the  water  and 
then  settling  down  to  a  depth  of  6  or  7  feet,  darted  out  into 
the  channel,  got  into  the  wake  of  the  brig,  rounded  her  stern, 
and  went  plump  into  her  on  the  starboard  quarter.  A  great 
jet  of  black  and  white  smoke,  a  violent  upheaval  of  smashed 
spars  and  timbers,  and  a  dull  report  followed ;  and,  as  the 
smoke  cleared,  the  unfortunate  brig,  which  seemed  to  be 
absolutely  shaken  to  pieces,  slowly  sank.  Four  minutes 
after  she  had  been  struck  she  was  beneath  the  water,  which  all 
around  was  covered  with  her  wreckage."  2 

But  after  a  career  of  something  like  five-and-twenty  years, 
the  manufacture  of  the  Brennans  has  been  suspended.  Prob- 
ably the  incidents  of  the  Russo-Japanese  War  have  induced 

1  A.  H.  Burgoyne,  "  Submarine  Navigation." 

'  "  All  About  the  Royal  Navy,"  p.  58,     Laird  Clowes, 


SUBMARINE    WEAPONS  201 

the  authorities  to  consider  that  some  other  form  of  harbour 
defence  is  preferable,  or  that  the  heavy  gun  is  sufficient  to  keep 
ironclads  at  a  distance  from  shore  defences. 

Among  other  shore-controlled  torpedoes  we  may  mention 
the  Lay,  Nordenfeldt,  and  Sims-Edison  torpedoes.  The  latter 
is  a  long  cigar-shaped  torpedo  suspended  by  a  rigid  framework 
from  a  boat-shaped  float  upon  which  are  two  vertical  rods 
carrying  coloured  flags  by  day  and  screened  lamps  by  night. 
By  means  of  these  the  operator  on  shore  can  observe  and 
follow  the  course  of  his  torpedo.  The  requisite  electric 
current  is  generated  by  a  dynamo  on  shore  and  conveyed  to 
the  torpedo  by  a  flexible  cable  containing  two  wires,  one 
of  which  supplies  the  motive  power  to  the  engine  while  the 
other  actuates  the  steering  machinery.  So  complete  is  the 
control  of  the  operator  that  he  can  easily  cause  the  torpedo 
to  run  straight,  turn  in  any  direction,  move  in  a  circle,  or 
dive  under  obstacles.  The  torpedo  itself  was  28  feet  long, 
21  inches  in  diameter,  and  carried  very  nearly  400  Ib.  of 
dynamite.  The  Lay  and  Nordenfeldt  were  very  similar 
affairs,  and  there  was  also  the  "  Controllable  Automobile 
Torpedo,"  another  American  invention,  which  closely  resembled 
the  Sims-Edison  except  that  it  carried  its  own  motive  power, 
its  engines  being  driven  by  carbonic-acid  gas  which  became 
liquefied  under  a  pressure  of  forty  atmospheres.  "  The 
liquid  gas  is  carried  in  a  small  tank  within  the  torpedo,  and 
on  its  passage  to  the  engines,  through  a  coiled  copper  tube, 
is  highly  expanded  by  an  intense  heat  produced  by  the 
chemical  action  of  dilute  sulphuric  acid  and  quicklime." l 
This  was  a  very  ingenious  idea  for  under-water  propulsion, 
and  was  said  to  give  the  torpedo  a  speed  of  twenty  miles  an 
hour  for  one  mile. 

The  "  Victoria  "  torpedo,  like  the  Brennan,  an  Australian 
invention,  was  something  between  the  latter  weapon  and 
the  Whitehead,  i.e.  was  guided  from  the  shore  by  an  electric 
1  Lieutenant  Hughes,.  U.S.N.,  in  Scribner  for  April  1887. 


202 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 


wire,  but  carried  its  motive  power  within  itself — compressed 
air,  as  in  the  Whitehead.  -  Preferably  it  was  discharged  from 
a  species  of  flat  stand  provided  with  a  couple  of  clips  for 
holding  the  torpedo,  and  from  which  it  could  be  released 
by  an  electric  wire  which  communicated  with  the  shore. 
These  and  the  dynamo  were  portable,  and  could  instantly 
be  placed  in  position  at  low  water  at  any  threatened  point 
of  the  coast.  Though  well  reported  on,  this  torpedo  never 
achieved  any  permanent  success. 


NIKOLA  TESLA'S  "  WIRELESS  "  BOAT. 

But  recent  science  has  put  into  the  hands  of  inventors  a 
method  by  which  they  can  control  their  boats  and  torpedoes 
without  having  to  hamper  them  with  yards  and  yards  of  electric 
cable.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  application  of  wireless  telegraphy  to 
the  direction  of  a  torpedo,  or  even  an  under-water  automatic 
boat  so  large  that  it  may  well  be  called  a  submarine.  The  same 
force  that  is  used  to  move  the  telegraphic  instruments  hundreds 
and  thousands  of  miles  away,  although  there  is  no  material 
communication,  and  so  send  messages  through  space,  can 
well  be  utilised  to  steer  a  torpedo  at  a  distance  of  as  many 
yards.  The  first  boat  designed  to  be  steered  in  this  way 


SUBMARINE    WEAPONS  203 

was  a  queer  little  surface  craft  invented  by  Nikola  Tesla  in 
1898.  It  was  built  of  wood  with  a  domed  metal  top,  and  might 
have  been  able  to  take  a  torpedo  alongside  an  enemy  if  not 
seen  and  destroyed  before  it  got  there.  A  young  Englishman, 
of  Spanish  descent,  Varicas  by  name,  invented  a  somewhat 
similar  apparatus  for  boat-steering  by  wireless  waves  about 
the  same  period,  and  made  several  successful  experiments 
with  a  model.  Quite  recently  a  Frenchman,  M.  Lalande, 
produced  an  automatic  submarine  which  is  very  like  the 
Sims-Edison  torpedo  in  appearance.  The  Lalande  has  no 


LALANDE'S  "  WIRELESS  "  TORPEDO. 

material  connection  with  ship  or  shore,  and  is  an  actual  sub- 
marine from  which  torpedoes  may  be  discharged.  She — 
that  is  to  say,  the  boat  proper — is  suspended  at  a  depth  of 
about  5  feet  below  the  float  or  upper  portion  of  the  contrivance, 
which  is  a  little  over  2  feet  in  diameter.  The  boat  itself 
has  a  diameter  of  4  feet  and  is  furnished  with  a  torpedo 
tube  from  which  a  Whitehead  can  be  discharged  at  the  will 
of  the  operator  on  shore  ;  in  the  centre  are  her  electric  engines 
and  accumulators,  while  aft  is  the  special  apparatus  which 
steers  and  in  fact  acts  as  the  brain  of  the  vessel,  manoeuvring 
it  in  obedience  to  the  various  impulses  passed  down  from 
the  light  poles  which  rise  above  the  surface  and  serve  as 


204  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

receivers  for  the  Hertzian  waves.  They  fulfil  a  further 
useful  purpose  in  enabling  the  operator  to  observe  and  direct 
the  course  of  the  submarine.  It  is  evident  that  here  we  have 
an  apparatus  which  might  form  a  most  formidable  engine 
of  war.  Its  principal  disability  would  seem  to  be  the  necessity 
for  using  an  above-water  float  which  might  be  observed  by 
the  enemy  and  possibly  destroyed.  But  there  is  another 
"  wireless "  contrivance  in  the  field  which  may  possibly 
revolutionise  naval  warfare.  This  is  the  Orling-Armstrong 
torpedo,  which  runs  completely  under  water  and  has  nothing 
at  the  surface  to  be  shot  away. 

Messrs.  Axel  Orling  and  J.  Tarbotton  Armstrong  in  the  first 


THE    ORLING- ARMSTRONG    "  ARMORL  "    BOAT. 

place  designed  a  submarine  boat  which  was  free  from  the 
disabilities  of  all  other  submarines  which  have  to  rely  for 
their  direction  on  the  periscope  compass  bearings  or  occasional 
visits  to  the  surface.  The  "  Armorl"  boat,  as  it  was  called, 
could  steer  almost  directly  for  her  objective  because  her 
commander  would  be  in  constant  communication  by  wireless 
telephone  with  another  officer  on  board  ship  or  on  shore 
who  could  see  the  enemy  and  continually  indicate  her  position 
to  him.  This  boat  does  not  seem  to  have  advanced  beyond 
the  model  stage,  probably  because  her  inventors  thought 
they  might  just  as  well  apply  the  idea  directly  to  a  torpedo, 
which  would  be  in  many  ways  preferable  to  the  bulky  and 
expensive  submarine.  In  point  of  fact  the  "  Actinaut,"  as  they 
term  their  new  torpedo,  promises  to  be  less  costly  than  the 


SUBMARINE    WEAPONS  205 

Whitehead.  "  It  is  just  dropped  or  slipped  into  the  water," 1 
said  Mr.  Armstrong,  "  and  is  then,  without  any  connecting 
wires,  entirely  subject  to  my  control,  either  from  the  bridge 
of  a  ship  or  a  room  on  shore.  There  is  a  receiving  apparatus 
on  board  the  torpedo  which  by  ingenious  mechanism  acts 
upon  an  arm  the  movement  of  which  causes  the  screws 
to  turn.  Every  quarter-turn  of  this  arm  causes  the  screws 
to  revolve  differently,  and  consequently  makes  the  torpedo 
take  up  a  new  position.  Of  course  it  was  necessary  to  have 
some  mark  to  show  the  position  of  the  torpedo  in  the  water. 


THE    OBUNG-ABMSTRONG    "  ACTINAUT.  ' 

By  favour  of  the  Illustrated  London  News. 

I  used  a  flag  at  first,  but  the  Admiralty  asked  me  if  I  could 
not  devise  something  which  could  not  possibly  be  shot  down 
by  an  enemy.  One  night  I  dreamed  the  way  to  get  over 
the  difficulty,  and  now  we  have  an  air-pressure  tank  in  the 
torpedo  which  sucks  in  salt  water  and  sends  it  out  again 
like  the  blow  of  a  whale.  They  may  fire  at  that  for  ever 
without  doing  any  harm.  The  spray  of  water  at  the  same 
time  serves  as  an  indestructible  receiver  for  the  electric 
waves.  On  encountering  a  warship  the  torpedo  first  travels 
towards  the  netting  which  surrounds  it  as  a  protection  against 
torpedoes  of  all  kinds.  After  it  has  struck  the  net  it  goes 
back,  sinks,  goes  forward  again  and  upward,  and  then 
blows  up  the  vessel." 

1  In  the  Illustrated  London  News,  June  13,  1903. 


206  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

When  this  invention  is  perfected  it  seems  quite  possible 
that  all  submarine  boats  and  most  torpedoes  will  have  to 
be  relegated  to  the  scrap-heap.  But  to  be  perfect  it  must 
carry  a  very  heavy  charge,  for  if  the  events  of  the  Russo- 
Japanese  war  go  to  prove  anything  it  is  that  even  a  series 
of  Whiteheads  striking  the  same  ship  will  not  do  damage 
comparable  to  that  inflicted  by  a  mine  filled  with  a  big 
charge  of  high  explosive.  The  torpedoes  damaged  and 
even  disabled  a  battleship,  the  mine  destroyed  it  totally. 


CHAPTER    XVI 

SEMI-SUBMARINES 


207 


CHAPTER   XVI 

SEMI-SUBMARINES 

Semi-submarine  Vessels — Nasmyth's  "Anti-Invasion  Floating 
Mortar,"  1853 — Semi- submarine  Rams — The  Manassas,  the 
Katahdin,  and  the  Polyphemus — The  Keo-Kuk,  Stromboli, 
and  Spuyten-Duivel — Legrand's  proposed  Submersible  Moni- 
tor— Submersible  Ironclad  for  the  Prussian  Government — 
Berkeley  and  Hotchkiss'  and  Lagane's  Semi- submarine  Boats. 

ALTHOUGH  not  in  the  same  category  as  submersibles  and 
submarines,  which  utilise  the  water  not  only  as  a  protection 
from  fire  but  also  from  detection,  and  carry  out  their  attack 
below  the  enemy's  waterline  whether  acting  at  the  surface  or 
below  it,  there  have  been  a  good  many  what  we  may  call "  semi- 
submersibles"  built  from  time  to  time,  of  which  a  few  particulars 
are  of  interest.  These  vessels  have  this  in  common  with 
submarine  boats  proper,  that  they  make  considerable  use 
of  the  water  in  which  they  float  to  protect  themselves  from 
gun-fire  both  by  covering  a  great  portion  of  their  hull  and 
by  offering  a  smaller  target,  since  in  action  as  much  of  them 
as  possible  is  beneath  the  surface.  We  have  had  occasion 
to  refer  to  one  of  these  in  Chapter  XIV.,  but  this  (the  American 
Burger  boat)  approaches  so  nearly  to  a  submarine  proper 
that  it  is  perhaps  excusable  to  have  reckoned  it  in  the  list 
of  United  States  submarines. 

Most  of  the  semi-submarines  that  have  been  constructed 
have  been  much  larger  craft  than  the  real  submarines  have 
ever  been,  most  in  fact  being  actually  ships.  Leaving  on 
one  side  the  "  catamarans  "  used  at  Boulogne  in  1804,  and 

209  14 


210 


THE    STORY   OF   THE    SUBMARINE 


the  "  torpedo  pilots  "  to  which  we  have  already  had  occasion 
to  refer  in  tracing  the  earlier  phases  of  the  evolution  of  under- 
water attack,  we  have  first  to  describe  an  invention  which 
attracted  some  attention  about  the  year  1853.  This  was 
Nasmyth's  Submarine  Mortar,  a  curious  vessel  built  of  poplar 
wood  at  least  10  feet  thick,  so  as  to  be  impervious  to  any 
of  the  round  cannon-balls  of  the  period.  It  was  about  80  feet 
long  over  all  with  a  beam  of  30  feet,  and  was  propelled  by  a 
steam-engine  driving  a  single  screw.  Nothing  appeared 


fuL< 

SECTION  OF  NASMYTH'S  FLOATING  MORTAR,  1853. 

above  water  but  the  rounded  top  of  the  mass  of  timber 
forming  the  upper  deck  of  the  vessel,  the  funnel,  and  a  little 
dome  over  the  head  of  the  steersman,  who  was  ensconsced  in  a 
small  chamber  cut  in  the  thickness  of  the  upper  side  of  the 
vessel  near  the  bow.  The  cross-section  of  the  vessel  was 
a  flattened  circle  like  that  of  an  orange,  so  that  she  was  very 
nearly  cylindrical  in  form.  The  most  remarkable  point 
about  the  "Anti-Invasion  Floating  Mortar  " — to  give  her  the 
title  bestowed  on  her  by  the  inventor,  James  Nasmyth, 
better  known  as  the  inventor  of  the  steam  hammer — was 


SEMI-SUBMARINES  211 

the  mortar  itself.  This  was  an  enormous  casting  of  brass 
fitting  like  a  cap  over  the  whole  of  the  forepart  of  the  vessel. 
It  was  8  or  10  feet  thick  in  the  central  part,  which  protruded 
like  a  kind  of  snout,  and  in  this,  in  line  with  the  longer  axis 
of  the  boat,  a  chamber  was  bored  out.  Into  this  fitted  a  huge 
conical  projectile  with  a  hollow  base.  This  contained  a  charge 
of  powder,  which  with  the  projectile  itself  was  enclosed  in  a 
hermetically  closed  brass  case  having  a  percussion  arrangement 
at  the  end  of  it  and  a  species  of  protruding  flange  round  the 
centre.  This  big  shell  was  fitted  tightly  into  the  mortar 
down  to  the  flange,  and  was  always  to  be  carried  in  this  position. 
Although  no  great  speed  was  expected  from  this  weird  vessel, 
the  impetus  with  which  the  point  of  the  shell  would  be  driven 
against  the  flank  of  an  enemy's  ship  would  be  sufficient,  it 
was  considered,  to  cause  the  flange  to  be  sheared  away  and 
the  percussion  cap  at  the  end  of  the  powder  charge  driven 
against  the  base  of  the  mortar,  which  would  then  be  discharged 
and  drive  a  big  hole  through  the  enemy  below  water. 

It  was  an  ingenious  idea,  but  does  not  seem  to  have  "  caught 
on." l  It  had  obviously  a  good  many  weak  points,  and  passive 
defence  on  our  own  coasts  has  always  been  a  policy  opposed 
to  the  better  judgment  of  the  nation,  as  was  aptly  pointed 
out  at  the  time.  "  The  fear  of  an  invasion,"  remarked  the 
Illustrated  London  News,  "  has  been  very  strong  in  the  minds 
of  the  people  of  Britain  ever  since  Louis  Napoleon  became 
President  of  France,  and  at  present  the  excitement,  we  can 
perceive,  is  approaching  fever  heat.  .  .  .  We  must  say  that 
England  seems  afraid  now  of  trusting  in  her  wooden  walls, 
and,  instead  of  terrifying  her  foes  by  keeping  watch  and  ward 
on  their  coasts,  as  she  once  did,  she  is  keeping  a  sharp  look- 
out for  the  defence  of  her  own  coasts  by  such  water-hogs 
as  this  of  Mr.  Nasmyth.  Prudence,  no  doubt,  is  the  better 

1  In  a  very  recent  issue  of  the  Scientific  American  there  is  a 
description  of  a  novel  automobile  torpedo  invented  by  a  Mr.  Davis 
which  carries  a  small  loaded  cannon  in  front  like  Nasmyth 's  boat. 


212  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

part  of  valour,  but  we  apprehend  that  this  vessel  could  very 
easily  be  taken  prisoner  by  a  few  boats  before  it  was  permitted 
to  drive  its  snout  against  the  side  of  an  invading  warship." 

Mr.  Tetar  van  Elven,  of  Amsterdam,  in  1859  patented  a 
design  for  an  ironclad  which  was  to  fight  in  an  "  awash  " 
position,  armed  with  the  time-honoured  "  auger  " — in  this 
case  driven  by  steam.  Its  most  interesting  peculiarity  was 
a  kind  of  "  periscope  "  or  "  optical  tube." 

We  come  now  to  a  class  of  vessels  which  are  very  similar 
to  Nasmyth's  except  that  they  were  more  modern,  were 
built  of  iron  and  steel  instead  of  wood,  and  relied  on  their 
rams  instead  of  a  submarine  projectile.  But  the  method 
of  attack  was  really  the  same.  Protected  by  a  horizontal 
cuirass  and  difficult  to  hit  on  account  of  lying  so  low  in  the 
water,  they  were  intended  to  charge  straight  up  to  the  enemy 
unchecked  by  the  fiercest  storm  of  projectiles  that  could  be 
directed  upon  them.  They,  too,  were  "  water-hogs." 

Like  many  another  innovation  in  naval  and  military  material, 
their  earliest  types  date  from  the  American  Civil  War,  where 
both  sides  set  to  work  to  produce  the  most  novel  and  destruc- 
tive weapons  they  could  fabricate  out  of  the  means  at  their 
disposal.  Ramming  attack  dates  from  the  days  of  the  ancient 
Greeks  and  Romans,  and  was  very  usual  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
where  long  oar-propelled  war-vessels  were  used,  as,  for  instance, 
when  Richard  Lion-Heart's  galleys  rammed  and  sank  the 
huge  Turkish  dromon  off  Beyrout.  The  advent  of  sail-power 
put  the  ram  in  the  background  for  a  time,  but  the  invention 
of  steam  propulsion  brought  it  once  more  to  the  front.  An 
almost  solid  mass  of  timber  propelled  by  paddle-wheels  was 
advocated  by  the  American  Commodore  Barron  about  1821, 
while  in  1841  Congress  voted  250,000  dollars  to  Robert  Stevens 
for  the  construction  of  an  armour-plated  ram  which  he  pro- 
posed ;  but  this  does  not  appear  ever  to  have  become  part  of 
the  United  States  Navy.  But  among  the  various  extra- 
ordinary craft  the  Confederates  built  and  improvised  on  the 


SEMI-SUBMAKINES 


213 


outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  they  had  a  regular  steam  ram  which 
took  part  in  many  of  the  engagements  with  the  Northern 
squadrons. 

This  was  the  Manassas,  a  cigar-like  affair  lying  very  low 
in  the  water,  only  showing  the  hump  of  her  back  (which  was 
a  foot  thick  and  covered  with  1J  inches  of  bar  iron),  her 
funnel,  and  the  muzzle  of  a  68-pounder  gun  sticking  out 
of  a  porthole  a  little  way  in  front  of  it.  In  October  1861, 
only  six  months  after  the  declaration  of  war,  this  little  "  water- 
hog  "  drove  the  whole  of  the  Mississippi  blockading  squadron 
out  of  that  river.  This  formidable  vessel  had  a  displacement 


THE    "  MANASSAS  "    BAM,     1861. 

of  387  tons  and  was  128  feet  long,  her  bow  being  built  solid 
for  a  length  of  20  feet  and  plated  with  iron. 

The  "  defence  ram  "  Katahdin,  designed  by  the  American 
Admiral  Ammen  and  launched  in  the  early  'nineties,  was  a 
very  similar  vessel.  All  of  her  hull  that  appears  above  water 
is  a  curved  turtle-backed  deck  varying  in  thickness  from 
2  to  6  inches,  and  sloping  down  to  6  inches  below  the  waterline. 
From  the  lower  edge  of  this  armour  deck  the  ship's  sides 
slope  suddenly  inwards  to  meet  the  narrow  flat  bottom  of 
the  vessel.  The  hull  is  further  protected  by  a  3-  to  6-inch 
armour  belt  just  below  the  edge  of  the  protective  deck.  All 
that  is  to  be  seen  on  the  Katahdin's  deck  is  an  armoured 
conning-tower,  a  funnel,  her  ventilators,  and  two  low  barbettes 


214  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

in  which  are  mounted  four  light  guns  for  driving  off  torpedo- 
boats. 

The  Polyphemus,  built  in  this  country  and  launched  at 
Chatham  in  1881,  was  a  similar  type  of  vessel,  but  as  she  has 
a  much  more  elaborate  superstructure  she  looks  very  much 
like  a  small  gunboat.  Yet  the  hull  itself  is  really  a  cigar-like 
affair  heavily  plated  on  the  sloping  upper  surface  and  lying 
almost  entirely  under  water.  The  Polyphemus  is  much  bigger, 
therefore,  than  she  looks,  and  has  a  displacement  of  2640  tons. 
She  is  240  feet  long  and  40  feet  wide  amidships,  and  carries 


THE    "  KATAHDIN  "    RAM,    1893. 

five  submerged  torpedo  tubes.  She  served  several  commissions 
in  the  Mediterranean  and  took  part  in  some  of  the  earlier 
Naval  Manoeuvres,  when  she  distinguished  herself  by  breaking 
the  defence  boom  laid  out  in  Bantry  Bay.  The  boom  was 
constructed  of  heavy  spars  secured  by  a  5-inch  wire  hawser, 
but  the  Polyphemus,  after  dodging  several  torpedoes  fired 
at  her  by  the  defending  boats,  struck  the  boom  at  right  angles 
and  went  through  it  as  if  it  were  packthread,  without  the 
slightest  shock  being  experienced  on  board.  No  more  ships 
of  her  kind  were  built,  and  she  is  not  now  on  the  effective 
list  of  the  Navy. 

We  have  noticed  the  variety  of  warship  types  which  owe 


SEMI-SUBMAKINES 


215 


their  creation  to  the  American  Civil  War,  and  among  these 
was  the  submersible  monitor  built  by  the  Federals.  She 
was  an  attempt  to  improve  on  the  monitor  proper,  which 
proved  such  a  formidable  instrument  in  dealing  with  the 
improvised  ironclads  of  the  Southerners,  by  providing  her 
with  an  arrangement  which  allowed  her  to  sink  the  whole 
of  her  hull  under  water  except  her  turrets  and  funnels,  or 
"  smoke  stacks,"  as  the  Yankees  preferred  to  call  them. 


THE    "  POLYPHEMUS  "    BAM,    1881. 

This  was  the  Keo-Kuk,  whose  hull,  were  it  not  for  the  ram 
and  rudder,  had  very  much  the  shape  of  a  cigar.  She  was 
160  feet  long  over  all  and  36  feet  wide.  She  was  provided 
with  twin  screws,  and  under  ordinary  circumstances  only 
drew  eight  and  a  half  feet  of  water.  When  in  fighting  trim, 
however,  with  her  tanks  filled,  she  only  showed  her  turrets 
and  funnel  above  water.  The  turrets  were  built  solidly  on 
the  deck  so  that  no  water  could  leak  in  underneath  them.  As, 
therefore,  they  could  not  revolve,  each  was  provided  with 
three  ports  fitted  with  swinging  lids  so  that  the  11-inch  gun 
inside  could  be  trained  on  either  beam  and  ahead  or  astern, 
as  the  case  might  be.  The  Keo-KuJc  was  built  of  iron  and 


216  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

strongly  supported  for  ramming  by  longitudinal  girders. 
Her  tanks  took  forty  minutes  to  fill  and  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  to  empty.  Her  projectiles  weighed  180  Ib.  each,  and 
she  carried  a  crew  of  a  hundred  officers  and  men.  She 
was  plated  with  two  inches  of  iron,  and  had  an  inner  skin 
nearly  an  inch  in  thickness. 

This  unique  warship  had  a  very  short  fighting  career, 
and  her  power  of  immersion — if  indeed  she  made  use  of  it — 
did  not  preserve  her  from  serious  injury.  Being  ordered  to 
attack  Fort  Sumter  at  the  entrance  of  Charleston  harbour, 
in  conjunction  with  other  ironclads  under  Admiral  Dupont, 
she  had  to  stand  in  within  three  or  four  hundred  yards  of 
this  fort  in  order  to  avoid  a  collision  with  the  Nahant.  The 
Confederate  gunners  at  this  range  could  not  miss  her,  and 
she  was  struck  nearly  a  hundred  times  in  thirty  minutes. 
Some  of  the  projectiles  went  clean  through  her,  others  pierced 
her  turrets,  the  2-inch  plating  being  insufficient  to  protect 
her  from  direct  impact.  In  short,  she  was  knocked  com- 
pletely out  of  time  and  had  to  haul  off.  It  came  on  to 
blow  in  the  night,  and  the  Keo-Kuk  went  down  early  the 
following  morning.  Great  expectations  had  been  formed  as 
to  her  capabilities,  and  after  so  signally  disappointing  them  it 
can  hardly  be  wondered  that  no  more  "  submersible  monitors  " 
were  built.  It  may  be  remarked  that  the  ordinary  monitors 
which  had  been  in  action  at  the  same  time  suffered  very 
little  damage  in  comparison. 

But  the  Federals  still  thought  there  was  something  in  the 
idea,  and  turned  their  attention  to  submersible  torpedo-craft. 
They  built  two  of  these,  the  Spuyten-Duivel  and  the  Stromboli. 
The  first  of  these  was  constructed  of  wood,  and  was  indeed 
a  curiosity  in  appearance  with  her  rounded  deck,  funnel 
right  aft  as  well  as  amidships,  bell-topped  conning-tower, 
and  three  bare  pole-masts.  She  was  just  over  82  feet  long 
and  20  feet  wide,  was  covered  over  with  1-inch  armour, 
and  had  a  displacement  of  207  tons.  Under  ordinary  circum- 


SEMI-SUBMARINES 


217 


stances  the  Spuyten-Duivel  only  showed  about  3  feet  of  her 
hull  above  water,  and  when  in  this  trim  could  steam  between 
9  and  10  knots.  When,  however,  she  was  going  into  action  she 
filled  up  her  tanks,  and  then  her  speed  came  down  to  4  knots 
and  only  a  foot  of  her  hull  could  be  seen  above  the  surface. 
She  was  armed  with  a  torpedo  attached  to  the  end  of  a  long 
heavy  spar  which  could  be  pushed  out  below  water  at  the 
bow  by  means  of  special  gearing  provided  for  the  purpose. 
She  arrived  in  the  James  River  in  1865,  just  too  late  to  take 
any  part  in  the  hostilities  which  were  about  to  terminate. 


THE    SEMI-ST7BMEHSIBLES    "  KEO-KTJK  "    A1TD 
DUIVJSL,"    1865. 


SPUYTEN- 


She  was  made  useful  afterwards  in  blowing  up  the  various 
obstructions  which  the  contending  forces  had  placed  in  the 
River. 

The  Stromboli  was  an  earlier  edition  of  the  Spuyten-Duivd 
by  the  same  designer,  Mr.  William  Wood.  She  was  84  feet 
long  and  twenty  feet  wide,  and  armed,  like  the  latter  vessel, 
with  a  spar-torpedo.  Mr.  John  Lay,  better  known  later  on 
as  the  inventor  of  the  Lay  torpedo,  and  who  also  had  a  hand 
in  the  designing  of  the  Spuyten-Duivel,  was  put  in  command 
of  her,  and  in  November  1864  she  was  sent  to  attack  the 
Confederate  ironclads  off  Charleston.  She  got  there,  but 
as  regards  her  exploits,  if  any,  history  is  silent. 


218          THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

But  not  only  in  America  were  certain  inventors'  minds 
turned  towards  submersible,  or  rather  semi-submersible 
fighting  ships.  A  French  naval  engineer,  M.  Legrand,  de- 
signed a  submersible  monitor  for  coast  defence  in  1862,  a 
model  of  which  is  to  be  seen  in  Paris.  In  appearance  it  is 
like  a  shallow  boat  with  twin  screws,  in  the  centre  of  which 
rises  a  kind  of  armoured  mound  surmounted  by  three  turrets. 
In  action  this  is  all  that  would  have  been  visible  of  the  vessel. 
Another  model  of  a  single-turreted  monitor  intended  to  fight 
in  an  "  awash  "  position  is  also  to  be  seen  in  the  French 
capital.  In  1869  the  Berlin  Borsenzeitung  published  an 
account  of  a  submersible  ironclad  designed  by  Herr  Otto 
Vogel,  which  it  was  said  had  been  approved  for  construction 
by  the  Prussian  Government.  "  The  vessel,"  it  wrote, 
"  covered  with  strong  plating,  is  entirely  below  the  surface  of 
the  water,  with  the  exception  of  the  deck,  which  is  surmounted 
by  a  vaulted  iron  roof  of  immense  strength.  Beneath  this 
covering  heavy  guns  are  placed,  so  that  the  whole  greatly 
resembles  a  first-class  ironclad.  It  is  said,  however,  that 
besides  the  advantages  of  such  men-of-war,  the  new  ship 
may  be  entirely  submerged,  and  in  this  position  is  so  completely 
under  command  that  it  can  outweather  a  storm  or  attack 
an  enemy  with  submarine  cannon  or  torpedoes.  Mr.  Vogel 
is  now  making  a  24-foot  model." 

Whether  the  model  was  completed  is  unknown,  but  it  is 
practically  certain  that  the  Prussian  Navy  never  numbered 
this  remarkable  warship  among  its  effective  units.  Two 
turret-ships,  the  Abyssinia  and  Magdala,  were  built  for  the 
defence  of  Bombay  harbour  in  1870,  and  these  ships,  it  is  said, 
could  be  submerged  up  to  the  armoured  breastwork  on  which 
their  turrets  stood. 

Admiral  Porter,  an  American  officer  who  designed  more 
than  one  queer  craft  in  his  time,  is  responsible  for  the  "  semi- 
submersible  "  called  by  his  name  which  was  launched  about 
1873  or  1874.  Two  quite  different  accounts  are  given  of  this 


SEMI-SUBMARINES  219 

vessel.  According  to  one1  it  was  built  with  an  enormous 
armoured  turret  equipped  with  guns,  which,  with  the  pilot 
tower  and  funnel,  was  all  that  remained  visible  when  in  fighting 
trim.  Another  agrees  with  the  former  in  saying  that  she  had 
a  torpedo  fixed  on  a  spar  protruding  from  her  ram,  but  makes 
no  mention  of  the  gun-turret.  Both  agree  as  to  her  dimensions. 
In  all  probability  the  Porter  never  had  a  turret,  though  her 
inventor  may  have  contemplated  one  before  he  finished 
working  out  his  design ;  and  by  the  addition  of  upper- works 
the  original  semi-submersible  was  altered  and  enlarged  in  the 


(f.tM 

LAGANE'S  SEMI-SUBMERSIBLE,  1880. 

Alarm,  a  ram  exactly  like  the  description  of  the  Porter  forward 
with  its  armoured  snout  sticking  out  a  long  way  ahead  under 
water,  finished  off  with  a  spar-torpedo  and  carrying  a  heavy 
gun  in  the  bows. 

Two  other  "  semi-submersibles  "  remain  to  be  noticed,  that 
invented  by  Messrs.  Berkeley  and  Hotchkiss,  the  latter  of  whom 
became  famous  on  account  of  his  quick-firing  and  machine 
guns,  and  that  designed  by  M.  Lagane  about  1880.  The  first 
mentioned  was  in  itself  a  regular  cigar-shaped  submarine  in 
appearance,  but  it  was  not  in  reality  anything  of  the  sort. 
It  was  heavier  than  the  water  it  displaced,  and  so,  if  left  to 
itself,  would  have  sunk  to  the  bottom.  But  it  was  suspended 

1  Pesce,  "  La  Navigation  Sous-marine." 


220          THE    STOKY    OF    THE    SUBMAKINE 

between  two  long  cylindrical  floats  in  such  a  way  that  when 
they  were  close  alongside  the  whole  affair  floated  at  the  sur- 
face. When,  however,  they  were  pushed  outwards  and  up- 
wards by  means  of  a  peculiarly  jointed  series  of  levers,  the 
boat  itself  sank  so  low  in  the  water  that  only  the  top  of  the 
conning-tower,  the  funnel,  and  a  ventilator  were  left  above  it. 
The  floats,  which  were  minutely  .subdivided  and  filled  with 
cork,  partially  protected  it  from  fire  on  the  broadside,  as  they 
themselves  would  take  a  deal  of  knocking  about  before  they 
could  be  destroyed.  The  vessel  was  propelled  by  an  ordinary 
steam-engine  and  carried  a  torpedo  tube  in  her  bow. 

Lagane's  invention  was  based  on  much  the  same  idea,  but 
carried  out  in  quite  a  different  way.  His  vessel  was  like  the  hull 
of  an  ordinary  broadside  ironclad  of  that  period,  of  very  narrow 
beam  and  having  the  space  between  its  upper  and  main  decks 
completely  filled  in  with  wood.  Only  the  upper  portion  of 
this  mass  of  timber  appeared  above  the  water,  and  through  it 
were  cut  shafts  for  the  conning-tower,  funnel,  coal-shoot,  and 
hatchway,  in  the  centre  of  which  was  a  ventilating-cowl.  It 
will  be  obvious  that  the  crew  down  in  the  lower  portion  of  the 
vessel  were  fairly  well  out  of  harm's  way.  The  boat  was  built 
of  steel  with  bullet-proof  plating  on  those  parts  appearing 
above  the  deck,  and  was  armed  with  a  tube  for  the  ejection  of 
Whitehead  torpedoes  right  down  at  the  point  of  her  ram  bow, 
and  a  spar-torpedo  carried  forward  on  her  upper  deck.  She 
was  nearly  100  feet  long  but  only  10  feet  wide,  and  13  feet 
deep.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Lagane's  idea  is  prac- 
tically the  same  as  that  perfected  in  Burger's  new  American 
"  submersibles." 


CHAPTER    XVII 
SUBMARINE  WORKING  BOATS 


221 


CHAPTER    XVII 

i 
SUBMARINE   WORKING   BOATS 

Submarine  Workers  and  Diving  Boats — Newton's  Boat — Dr. 
Payerne's  Submarines — Lambert's  Weird  Diving-boat,  1852 
— Raeber's  and  Merriam's  Boats — Pozzo's  Spherical  Submarine 
Worker  La  France — The  Audace — Simon  Lake's  Argonaut  I 
and  Argonaut  II — Experiences  on  Board — Pino'e  Submarine 
Worker  and  the  Bou-Korn. 

WHILE  not,  perhaps,  precisely  within  the  scope  of  our  subject, 
which  is  principally  limited  to  submarine  navigation  in  con- 
nection with  its  application  to  under- water  warfare,  there  have 
been  a  certain  number  of  submarines  designed  especially  for 
the  more  peaceful  work  connected  with  salvage  and  under- 
water construction,  which  have  been  so  well  thought-out  and 
practically  successful  that  they  can  hardly  be  passed  over  in 
silence.  The  most  noteworthy  example  of  this  is  the  series 
of  Argonauts  or  submarine  wrecking  boats  invented  by  Simon 
Lake,  from  which  has  been  directly  evolved  the  submarine 
torpedo-boat  Protector,  which,  in  the  opinion  of  many  experts, 
is  about  the  most  perfect  vessel  of  her  class  that  has  ever  been 
built. 

All  kinds  of  contrivances  have  been  constructed  or  imagined 
for  carrying  on  under- water  work,  some  of  the  earliest  of  which 
have  been  briefly  referred  to  in  the  beginning  of  this  book ; 
and  since  those  there  have  been  all  possible  kinds  of  diving- 
bells,  diving-suits,  caissons,  tubes  and  cylinders  produced  for 
this  purpose.  Our  business  lies  with  none  of  these,  but  only 
with  such  apparatus  of  the  sort  that  may  be  truly  considered 

223 


224          THE   STORY   OF   THE    SUBMARINE 

as  submarine  boats.  And  about  the  earliest  of  these  is  the 
diving-boat  for  which  William  Newton,  an  indefatigable, 
though  not  highly  successful  inventor,  took  out  various 
patents  between  the  years  1838  and  1856.  It  was  in  the  shape 
of  a  lemon  with  sharp  elongated  ends,  and  was,  in  point  of  fact, 
a  kind  of  subaqueous  jaunting-car  for  the  use  of  divers,  who 
drew  their  supply  of  air  from  her  interior.  The  boat  carried 
two  of  these  at  a  time,  each  seated  on  a  seat  on  the  outside. 
Two  tubes  leading  to  the  surface  kept  the  boat  well  supplied 
with  the  air  which  was  necessary,  not  only  for  the  divers  she 
carried,  but  for  the  one  or  two  men  inside  who  turned  her 
many-bladed  propeller  and  steered  her  by  means  of  a  rudder 
and  a  species  of  oar  which  protruded  from  her  bow. 

Dr.  Payerne,  some  slight  reference  to  whose  boats  has  already 
been  made,  having  studied  diving  and  made  several  descents 
during  the  operations  on  the  wreck  of  the  Royal  George  at 
Spithead,  began  by  trying  to  improve  on  the  diving-bells 
then  in  use,  and  afterwards  turned  his  attention  to  submarine 
working  boats.  His  first  essay  in  this  direction  was  what 
he  termed  a  "Bateau-cloche"  or  diving-boat,  and  was 
produced  in  1846.  It  was  very  much  the  shape  of  a 
modern  heavy-gun  projectile  except  that  it  tapered  slightly 
towards  the  stern,  which,  instead  of  being  flat  like  the  base 
of  a  shell,  was  slightly  convex.  It  was  35  feet  long  and 
about  10  feet  at  its  greatest  diameter.  Inside  it  was 
divided  into  two  parts  by  a  convex  bulkhead,  the  fore-part 
constituting  the  air  reservoir  and  the  after  portion  the  room 
in  which  the  propeller  was  turned  by  a  hand-crank.  The 
vessel  steered  by  vertical  and  horizontal  rudders,  and  the 
divers  emerged  into  the  water  by  means  of  an  "  air-lock  "  or 
small  chamber  in  which  the  air  was  compressed  till  its  pressure 
was  sufficient  to  stop  the  inrush  of  water  when  the  outer 
hatch  was  opened.  The  boat  carried  out  some  experiments 
on  the  Seine  at  Paris  which  seem  to  have  been  attended  with 
fairly  favourable  results. 


5  « 

i  i 

E     I 
>j 


SUBMARINE   WORKING   BOATS  225 

But  the  inventor  was  not  satisfied.  He  thought  he  might 
still  improve  on  his  design,  and  in  1854  he  took  out  another 
patent  for  a  submarine  which  he  termed  a  "  Pyrhydrostat." 
In  appearance  it  was  something  between  a  cylinder  and  an 
ordinary  boat  with  a  convex  deck.  It  was  divided  by  two 
vertical  bulkheads  into  three  compartments.  The  after  one, 
which  occupied  half  the  length  of  the  vessel,  contained  the 
engines,  driven  by  steam  generated  by  a  sealed-up  furnace 
burning  coke,  the  tanks  to  be  filled  for  immersion,  and  a  heavy 
weight  which  could  be  lowered  to  act  as  an  anchor.  The 


ptfe 


DB.  PAYERNE'S  "  PYRHYDROSTAT,"   1854. 

centre  one,  divided  horizontally  by  a  deck  with  a  manhole 
in  it,  formed  the  working  chamber  and  the  air-lock  to  give  the 
diver  egress,  while  the  foremost  one  contained  merely  an 
extra  supply  of  compressed  air.  It  does  not  seem  quite 
certain  that  this  particular  boat  was  actually  built,  but  the 
former  boat  is  said  to  have  proved  of  great  service  in  the 
construction  of  the  famous  breakwater  at  Cherbourg. 

A  Frenchman,  Alexandre  Lambert,  built  a  weird  diving- 
boat  in  America  in  the  year  1852.  It  looked  outside  like  a 
very  long  egg.  In  the  middle  was  a  big  working  chamber, 
which  also  formed  an  air-lock,  so  that  divers  could  go  outside 
the  boat  by  a  manhole  in  the  lower  part.  The  compartments 
at  each  end  contained  a  number  of  cylinders  of  compressed 

15 


226          THE    STORY   OF    THE   SUBMARINE 

air  which  could  be  pumped  into  the  central  compartment  by 
eight  pumps,  four  at  each  end,  and  so  raise  the  air  pressure 
sufficiently  to  exclude  the  water  when  the  manhole  was 
opened.  In  the  upper  side  were  a  number  of  glass  scuttles, 
and  a  hatch  for  entrance  into  the  vessel.  This  extraordinary 
affair  hardly  deserves  the  name  of  a  boat,  as  it  had  no  means 
of  propulsion.  Whether  its  trials — if  they  ever  came  off — 
proved  its  efficiency  or  otherwise  does  not  seem  to  be  recorded. 

Another  diving -boat  was  designed  by  Raeber  of  Newark,  near 
New  York,  in  1866.  There  seems  to  be  an  idea  that  a  French- 
man named  Merriam  must  have  had  something  to  do  with 
this  patent,  as  it  so  closely  resembles  a  similar  boat  that  he 
himself  designed  in  the  same  year.  Indeed  it  is  possible  that 
the  two  boats  described  in  various  works  may  in  reality  have 
been  one  and  the  same.  This  vessel  was  cigar-shaped  with  a 
flat  bottom,  was  divided  into  three  compartments,  and  driven 
by  a  propeller  which  could  be  turned  to  the  right  or  left  so 
that  it  answered  also  for  a  rudder,  or  at  any  rate  assisted  the 
little  rudders  that  were  fitted  to  the  boat.  The  shaft  was 
turned  by  two  hand-winches,  to  which  it  was  geared  by  pinions. 
Some  miles  of  wire  were  carried  on  drums  so  that  directions 
could  be  telegraphed  from  the  shore  if  considered  advisable. 
To  enable  the  water  tanks  to  be  emptied  almost  immediately 
on  an  emergency,  a  peculiar  method  was  adopted.  Cylinders 
containing  air  at  a  very  high  degree  of  compression  were  so 
placed  that  the  air  could  be  turned  into  the  ballast  tanks,  the 
effect  being  that  the  water  they  contained  would  be  blown 
out  almost  instantaneously.  Raeber  designed  a  second  boat 
for  war  purposes,  but  it  was  not  built. 

We  now  come  to  a  queer  spherical  submarine  worker  built 
by  an  Italian — M.  Piatti  del  Pozzo — about  1897.  It  was 
constructed  on  the  Seine  and  carried  out  its  trials  in  that 
river.  La  France,  as  it  was  called,  was  very  strongly  built  of 
steel,  strengthened  by  vertical  and  horizontal  ribs.  As  the 
sides  of  this  spherical  boat  are  very  nearly  3  inches  thick,  it 


SUBMARINE   WORKING   BOATS  227 

offers  a  tremendous  resistance  to  the  pressure  of  the  water,  and 
it  is  claimed  that  by  its  means  work  on  wrecks,  reefs,  etc.,  can 
be  carried  on  at  depths  far  beyond  those  at  which  it  is  possible 
for  a  diver  or  a  diving-bell  to  work.  Complete  with  its  working 
arms  and  other  paraphernalia  it  weighs  no  less  than  six  tons. 
It  is  fitted  with  three  screw  propellers  driven  by  electricity. 
One  of  these  works  in  a  recess  cut  out  of  the  rudder,  which  is 
very  large,  reaching  nearly  from  top  to  bottom  of  the  boat ;  the 
remaining  two  are  placed  one  at  each  side,  and  as  they  can  be 
turned  so  as  to  direct  their  powers  of  propulsion  in  any  direction 
—upwards  or  downwards,  forward  or  astern — it  will  be  seen 
that  the  man  in  charge  of  the  vessel  has  her  very  much  under 
control,  and  can  turn  her  in  any  direction.  It  should  be 
pointed  out  that  La  France  was  not  intended  to  have  an 
altogether  independent  existence,  for  she  was  suspended  from 
an  ordinary  steamer  or  barge  when  at  work,  her  propellers 
being  merely  intended  to  enable  her  to  move  about  her  work 
and  to  prevent  her  being  a  drag  on  her  above-water  consort 
when  moving  from  one  place  to  another.  A  species  of 
telescopic  arm  or  crane,  strongly  supported  by  stays  bolted 
to  the  outside  of  the  vessel,  could  be  manipulated  from  within, 
as  also  could  a  big  claw-ended  wrench  and  large  bowls  or 
baskets  for  carrying  or  removing  stone  or  any  heavy  materials. 

The  crew — who  enter  by  a  trapdoor  at  the  top — are  enabled 
to  see  by  means  of  specially  constructed  windows  at  the  side, 
and  by  the  aid  of  an  electric  light  suspended  from  the  ship  to 
which  the  machine  is  attached.  Heavy  cases  of  ballast  are 
used  to  sink  the  "  worker,"  which  in  case  of  accident  can  be 
released  from  the  inside,  on  which  the  Pozzo  boat  will  at  once 
bob  up  to  the  surface. 

A  very  similar  contrivance  was  patented  by  a  M.  Rigaud 
in  1899  under  the  name  of  the  "  Hydrophilos,"  but  was  never 
built.  The  principal  difference  between  it  and  La  France 
was  that  instead  of  being  spherical  it  was  just  the  shape  of  a 
large  egg.  Four  legs  were  fitted  to  its  larger  end,  and  between 


228 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 


them  there  was  space  for  a  big  horizontal  propeller  to  assist 
in  raising  and  sinking  the  quaint-looking  vessel. 

Degli  Abbati,  an  Italian  engineer,  also  produced  an 
extremely  odd-looking  diving-boat  in  1892,  which  he  christened 
the  Audace.  Looked  at  sideways  its  general  outline  was  not 
very  unlike  that  of  a  projectile  intended  for  a  large  gun,  but 
then  it  was  not  cylindrical  but  inclined  to  be  flat,  like  a  half- 
filled  Gladstone  bag.  It  was  28  feet  6  inches  long,  7  feet  wide, 
11  feet  6  inches  high,  and  built  of  two  thicknesses  of  steel 


"  L'AUDACE,"  SUBMARINE  WORKER,   1892. 

so  as  to  be  able  to  withstand  the  enormous  pressure  of  water 
at  the  depth  of  300  feet,  to  which  it  was  intended  to  descend. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  never  went  deeper  than  53  feet  during 
its  trials  at  Civita-Vecchia.  At  that  depth  the  Audace 
evinced  great  horizontal  stability,  moved  easily  through  the 
water,  and  demonstrated  that  the  arrangements  for  the  supply 
of  air  to  her  crew  of  four  men  were  almost  perfect.  She  was 
lighted  and  driven  by  electricity,  and  there  was  an  arrange- 
ment of  lenses  which  enabled  her  to  proj  ect  three  electric  rays 
on  either  side  to  allow  her  divers,  after  quitting  her  by  the 
door  near  her  after  end,  to  see  what  they  were  about.  She 


SUBMARINE    WORKING    BOATS  229 

had  a  single  small  propeller  and  two  rudders,  the  lower  one 
of  the  ordinary  form.  The  other,  placed  just  above  it,  was 
like  the  tail  of  a  fish.  Forward  she  had  a  small  conning-tower 
and  a  manhole  or  scuttle  giving  access  to  her  interior.  Al- 
though she  seems  to  have  done  well  on  her  trials  nothing 
more  very  remarkable  has  been  heard  about  her,  probably 
because  want  of  funds  prevented  further  experiments. 

We  now  come  to  what  may  be  fairly  regarded  as  the  most 
successful  of  all  diving  and  wrecking  boats,  the  Argonaut  of 
Simon  Lake,  of  which  mention  has  more  than  once  been  made 
in  former  chapters.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  this 
successful  inventor  drew  his  first  inspiration  direct  from  Jules 
Verne's  "  Twenty  Thousand  Leagues  under  the  Sea,"  that 
remarkable  romance  of  a  submarine  vessel.  This  was  at  the 
age  of  ten,  and  a  very  few  years  later  he  produced  the  crude 
but  highly  practical  submarine  Argonaut  Junior,  which  has 
been  already  described.1  But  this  only  spurred  the  inventor 
on  to  further  efforts,  and  in  1897  he  launched  the  Argonaut  I. 
This  was  of  the  orthodox  cigar  shape,  and  built  of  steel  plating 
over  strong  frames.  She  was  36  feet  long  with  a  beam  of 
9  feet,  and  was  constructed  in  Baltimore.  She  carried  a 
30  h.p.  White  &  Middleton  gas  engine,  a  dynamo,  search- 
light, air -compressor,  and  water-ballast  pumps.  She  was 
provided  with  a  diving  compartment,  with  geared  wheels 
for  movement  along  the  sea-floor,  and  with  a  propeller  for 
propulsion  at  the  surface.  Although  so  small  in  size,  a  crew 
of  five  men  cruised  over  2,000  miles  in  her  in  1898,  partly  at 
the  surface  and  partly  submerged,  in  Chesapeake  Bay  and  on 
the  Atlantic  coast.  During  this  extended  cruise  she  was  put 
through  every  trial  and  experiment  that  could  be  devised, 
coming  out  triumphantly  from  almost  all,  and  finally  vindi- 
cated her  surface  seaworthiness  by  braving  the  terrible  storms 
of  November  and  December,  in  which  over  two  hundred  vessels 
were  wrecked.  Here  are  a  few  extracts  from  the  inventor's 

1   Vide  Chapter  XII, 


230 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 


own  account  of  the  cruise.1  "  We  have  been  in  some  pretty 
rough  weather  and  found  that  she  was  perfectly  seaworthy. 
Of  course,  being  so  small  and  of  such  weight,  the  seas  at  times 
would  wash  clear  over  her  decks.  This,  however,  caused  no 
inconvenience  to  those  below,  as  her  stability  was  such  that 
she  would  roll  or  pitch  very  little,  even  though  the  seas  were 
breaking  over  her  in  great  volume.  We  have  been  cruising 


LAKE'S  "  ARGONAUT  i  AND  n,"  1897  AND  1900. 

N.B. — The  dotted  line  shows  how  No.  I  was  improved  into  No.  II. 

on  the  bottom  in  rivers,  in  Chesapeake  Bay  and  beneath  the 
broad  Atlantic.  In  the  rivers  we  invariably  found  a  muddy 
bed ;  in  the  bay  we  found  bottoms  of  various  kinds,  in  some 
places  so  soft  that  our  divers  would  sink  up  to  their  knees, 
while  in  other  places  the  ground  would  be  hard,  and  at  one 
place  we  ran  across  a  bottom  which  was  composed  of  loose 
gravel,  resembling  shelled  corn.  Out  in  the  ocean,  however, 
was  found  the  ideal  submarine  course,  consisting  of  a  fine  grey 

1   Quoted  by  Herbert  Fyfe  in  "  Submarine  Warfare." 


SUBMARINE    WORKING   BOATS  231 

sand,  almost  as  hard  as  a  macadamised  road,  and  very  level 
and  uniform.  During  this  trip  we  investigated  several  sunken 
wrecks.  We  found  one  old  wreck,  said  to  have  gone  down 
some  forty  years  ago  near  the  mouth  of  the  Patuxent  River. 
.  .  .  Toad-fish  had  evidently  found  this  old  wreck  a  congenial 
habitation,  and  when  the  diver's  hand  comes  in  contact  with 
one  of  these  horrible-looking,  strong-jawed,  big-mouthed  fish, 
he  pulls  it  back  pretty  quickly.  We  spent  some  hours  with 
Hampton  Roads  as  head-quarters,  and  made  several  descents 
in  the  waters  adjacent  thereto ;  we  were  desirous  of  making 
a  search  for  the  cables  that  connected  with  the  mines  guarding 
the  entrance  to  the  harbour,  but  could  not  obtain  permission 
from  the  authorities,  who  were  afraid  we  might  accidentally 
sever  them,  which  would,  of  course,  make  their  entire  system 
of  defence  useless.  It  was  therefore  necessary  for  us,  in  order 
to  demonstrate  the  practicability  of  vessels  of  this  type  for 
this  purpose,  to  lay  a  cable  ourselves,  which  we  did,  across  the 
channel  leading  into  the  Patuxent  River.  We  then  submerged, 
and,  taking  our  bearings  by  the  compass,  ran  over  the  bottom, 
with  the  door  in  our  diving  compartment  open,  until  we  came 
across  the  cable,  which  we  hauled  up  into  the  compartment 
with  a  hook  only  about  four  and  a  half  feet  long,  and  we  could 
not  avoid  the  impression  that  it  would  be  a  very  easy  thing 
to  destroy  the  efficiency  of  the  present  mine  system.  And 
how  many  lives  might  have  been  saved,  and  millions  of  dollars 
besides,  had  our  Navy  been  provided  with  a  craft  of  this  type 
to  lead  the  way  into  Santiago,  Havana  or  San  Juan,  off  which 
ports  squadrons  were  compelled  to  lie  for  weeks  and  months 
owing  to  fear  of  the  mines  ?  On  another  trip  we  had  a  college 
professor  on  board,  who  could  not  understand  exactly  how  our 
men  could  get  out  of  the  boat.  I  told  him  to  come  into  the 
divers'  compartment  and  I  would  explain  it  to  him.  Accord- 
ingly he,  reluctantly,  as  I  thought,  entered  the  compartment, 
which  in  the  Argonaut  is  a  little  room  only  4  feet  long  and  a 
little  wider.  After  closing  the  door  J  noticed  tjiat  the  colour 


232  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

was  leaving  his  face  and  a  few  beads  of  perspiration  were 
standing  out  upon  his  forehead,  and  had  he  been  any  one  else 
but  a  professor  or,  possibly,  a  newspaper  man,  I  would  not 
have  gone  any  further  with  the  experiment.  The  door, 
however,  was  closed  and  securely  fastened.  I  then  opened 
the  valve  a  full  turn,  and  the  air  began  to  rush  in  with  a  great 
noise.  He  grabbed  hold  of  one  of  the  frames  and  glanced  with 
longing  eyes  at  the  door  we  had  just  entered.  After  getting 
the  desired  pressure  I  stooped  down  and  commenced  to 
unscrew  the  bolts,  holding  the  door  which  leads  out  into  the 
water.  Our  professor  said,  '  What  are  you  doing  now  ?  ' 
I  answered,  '  I  am  going  to  open  this  door  so  that  you  can  see 
the  bottom.'  Throwing  out  his  hands  he  said,  '  No,  no, 
don't  do  that.  I  would  not  put  you  to  that  trouble  for  the 
world.'  However  about  that  time  the  door  dropped  down, 
and  as  he  saw  the  water  did  not  come  in,  the  colour  returned 
to  his  face,  and  he  exclaimed,  *  Well,  if  I  had  not  seen  it, 
I  never  would  have  believed  it.'  ' 

But  Mr.  Lake  found  that  the  cigar  shape,  as  has  so  often 
proved  the  case,  did  not  give  him  quite  as  much  horizontal 
stability  as  he  would  have  liked,  and  so  he  set  to  work  to  re- 
construct his  boat,  finally  transforming  her  into  the  Argonaut 
II.  When  finished,  about  1900,  she  had  a  cigar-shaped  hull 
as  before,  but  it  was  20  feet  longer  and  carried  above  a  buoyant 
superstructure  with  a  swan  bow  and  overhanging  stern,  so 
that  at  the  surface  Jier  hull  looked  very  like  that  of  an  ordinary 
yacht.  Her  engines  were  by  the  same  makers  but  were  twice 
as  powerful,  and  she  carried  a  4-h.p.  auxiliary  engine  in 
addition.  Her  internal  arrangements  were  very  similar  to 
those  she  had  before  alteration,  and  she  proved  as  great  a 
success  as  before,  with  the  advantage  of  greater  stability, 
seaworthiness  and  accommodation,  for  she  could  now  carry  a 
crew  of  eight  men  and  had  a  cruising  radius  of  3,000  miles. 
From  this  improved  Argonaut  to  the  Protector  was  but  one  step. 
This  powerful  submarine  torpedo-boat  has  been  already 


SUBMARINE    WORKING   BOATS 


233 


described,1  and  it  only  remains  to  add  that  had  the  A\ 
and  Farfadet  been  provided,  as  she  and  all  the  Lake  boats  are, 
with  diving  chambers,  some,  if  not  all  of  their  crews  might  have 
escaped  to  the  surface. 

Two  other  diving-boats  are  worthy  of  mention,  Pino's 
Submarine  Worker  and  the  Bou-Korn.  The  first  mentioned 
is  the  invention  of  the  Cavaliere  Pino,  an  Italian,  and  is 
somewhat  like  a  rather  elongated  egg,  is  only  a  little  over 


THE    "  BOU-KORN,"    1903. 

9  feet  in  diameter,  and  is  able  to  resist  the  crushing  pressure 
of  the  superincumbent  water  at  a  depth  of  80  fathoms,  or 
over  300  feet.  Its  crew  of  two  men  can  lift  and  handle  heavy 
weights  with  considerable  facility  by  means  of  the  long  arms 
with  claw-like  attachments  which  protrude  from  the  forepart 
of  this  strange  vessel.  Heavy  objects  having  been  placed  in 
contact  with  an  automatic  grapnel,  which  is  employed  in  con- 
junction with  the  submarine,  they  are  clutched  and  hoisted 
to  the  surface.  The  crew  can  shift  the  position  of  their  under- 
water ship  by  means  of  an  electrically  worked  propeller  and  a 

i   Fide  Chapter  XIV, 


234  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

wheel  for  moving  on  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  while  constant 
telephonic  communication  is  kept  up  with  the  vessel  from 
which  the  submarine  grapnel  is  worked. 

The  Bou-Korn,  a  remarkably  successful  little  vessel  in 
its  way,  was  invented,  not  by  an  engineer  but  by  a  priest, 
the  Abbe  Raoul  of  Tunis  Cathedral,  and  was  designed  to 
enable  the  sponge  fishery  on  the  North  African  coast  to 
be  carried  out  with  less  danger  to  the  divers.  The  inventor 
seems  to  have  succeeded  almost  beyond  his  expectations, 
for  the  boat  dives  and  manoeuvres  and  comes  up  again 
just  as  required,  and  manipulates  most  successfully  a  special 
grapnel  which  he  designed  for  it.  The  Bou-Korn  had  one 
serious  misadventure,  which  does  not,  however,  reflect  on 
her  design.  The  Abbe  himself,  a  friend,  and  a  couple  of 
fishermen  were  on  board,  and  had  carried  out  one  or 
two  dives  without  any  difficulty.  She  was  at  the  surface 
with  the  hatchway  open  whilst  the  crew  made  their  mid- 
day meal,  after  which  another  dive  was  determined  upon. 
"  Are  you  all  ready  ?  "  asked  the  Abbe  from  his  position  at 
the  opening  to  the  man  who  attended  to  the  diving  machinery 
inside.  "  Aye,  aye,  Sir,"  came  the  answer  ;  but  the  speaker 
acted  too  quickly,  and  down  she  went  before  the  Abbe  could 
close  the  hatch.  Luckily  all  hands  kept  their  presence  of 
mind,  and  one  after  the  other  contrived  to  slip  out  of  the  man- 
hole and  shoot  up  to  the  surface,  where  they  were  rescued  by 
the  tug  in  attendance.  The  Bou-Korn,  which,  by  the  way,  is 
named  after  a  mountain  in  the  Bay  of  Carthage,  was  built  at 
Goletta  of  metal  sheathed  with  wood,  for  the  double  purpose 
of  protecting  her  from  corrosion  and  collision.  She  is  about 
16  feet  long,  and  is  equipped  with  three  screws,  one  of  which, 
at  the  stern,  propels  her,  while  the  other  two,  situated  one  on 
either  side,  enable  her  to  turn  in  her  own  length.  She  is  a  very 
queerly  shaped  craft  not  unlike  a  huge  lemon,  and  having 
been  got  up  again  from  the  bottom  after  the  mishap  just 
related,  is  said  to  be  still  "  going  strong." 


CHAPTER    XVIII 

SOME   PROJECTED  SUBMARINES   WHICH   HAVE   NEVER  BEEN 

BUILT 


235 


CHAPTER   XVIII 
A  FEW  PROPOSED  SUBMARINES 

Some  Projects  for  Submarines — Montgery's  L 'Invisible,  1825 — 
Cast  era' s  Designs  for  Submarines — Althabegoity's  "  Hydro 
scaphe  " — Bauer's  "  Bruleur  des  Cotes  " — Hubault's  Submarine 
— Lieutenant  Hovgaard's  Plans  for  a  Submarine  Vessel — 
Apostoloff's  and  Lacavalerie's  weird  Revolving  Submarines — 
Rogers'  Telescopic  Boat. 

SINCE  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  it  has  been 
necessary  to  limit  our  "  Story  of  the  Submarine  "  to  those 
boats  which  have  been  actually  built.  Had  not  this  been 
done,  the  proposed  limits  of  this  little  work  would  have  been 
far  exceeded.  For  one  under-water  boat  that  has  been  con- 
structed at  least  three  have  been  designed,  planned,  or 
suggested.  Many  of  these  have  had  their  good  points,  very 
many  have  been  mere  chimeras,  while  a  great  number  have 
been  principally  remarkable  for  their  weird  and  grotesque 
design.  It  is  proposed  in  the  present  and  following  chapter 
to  describe  a  selection — a  very  small  selection — of  the  very 
numerous  list  of  embryo  submarines. 

The  first  to  which  we  will  direct  our  attention  is  L'Invisibk 
of  Captain  Montgery  of  the  French  Navy,  which  is  principally 
remarkable  on  account  of  its  ambitious  nature.  According 
to  the  elaborate  plans  and  descriptions  which  its  inventor,  or 
rather  projector,  drew  up  about  the  year  1822,  L?  Invisible 
was  to  be  a  regular  under-water  battleship  armed  with  four 
big  "  colombiads,"  or  under-water  cannon,  to  be  fired  through 
ports  fitted  with  special  water-tight  stoppers,  eight  carronades 

237 


238  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

on  the  upper  deck,  a  hundred  torpedoes,  the  same  number  of 
rockets,  a  ram,  and  last,  and  perhaps  not  least,  a  species  of 
force-pump  or  big  syringe  through  which  an  explosive  com- 
position 1  could  be  squirted  upon  the  enemy  something  in 
the  same  way  that  the  ancients  used  to  propel  Greek  fire 
through  their  siphons.  The  hull  was  to  be  very  much  like 
that  of  an  ordinary  above-water  vessel  except  that  it  was  to  be 
rather  shallower  than  was  generally  usual ;  it  had  a  deck 
with  low  bulwarks  just  like  any  other  craft.  According  to 
the  inventor,  it  was  to  be  built  principally  of  iron,  and  to  be 
112  feet  long,  28  feet  wide,  and  16  feet  deep.  A  domed  conning  - 
tower  rose  three  feet  above  the  bulwarks,  which,  like  the  dome 
itself,  were  plated  with  armour  6  inches  thick,  as  was  also  the 
deck  and  the  upper  portion  of  the  ship's  sides.  She  was  to  be 
fitted  with  two  masts  which  could  be  lowered  and  stowed  behind 
the  bulwarks.  But  these  were  only  an  auxiliary  means  of 
propulsion,  as  she  relied  principally  on  oars  and  a  set  of  paddle- 
wheels,  which  last  were  to  be  actuated  by  a  kind  of  explosion 
engine  of  which  the  motive  power  was  derived  from  the  gas 
of  exploded  gunpowder,  f  This  sounds  like  a  risky  machine 
to  deal  with,  but  Montgery  does  not  condescend  to  precise 
details  of  its  construction.  There  is  little  doubt  that  the 
whole  thing  was  merely  an  attempt  to  improve  on  the  Nau- 
tilus and  Mute  of  Fulton,  without  the  provision  of  any  very 
new  or  original  features.  Another,  and  modified  edition  of 
^Invisible  was  suggested  by  Montgery  a  year  or  two  later, 
the  principal  difference  from  the  first  being  that  it  was 
smaller. 

A  M.  Castera,  who  had  devoted  many  years  of  his  life  to 
the  study  of  submarine  navigation,  and  who  had  been  one  of  a 
committee  appointed  to  report  on  Fulton's  submarines,  took 
out  what  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  patent  for  a  submarine 

1  The  composition  suggested  was  "  three  parts  of  naphtha  or 
rectified  petroleum  and  one  of  nitrate  of  potash  reduced  to  a  fine 
powder." 


PROPOSED    SUBMARINES  239 

boat  in  1827. 1  Its  shape  was  evidently  suggested  by  the 
Nautilus,  but  its  inventor,  unlike  Fulton,  did  not  quite 
fancy  the  idea  of  being  cut  off  from  the  upper  air  altogether. 
He  therefore  proposed  that  his  boat  should  be  suspended  from 
a  float  by  two  cords  which  could  be  reeled  in  or  out  from 
inside  the  boat  and  so  assist  her  to  ascend.  From  the  middle 
of  the  float  a  flexible  tube  or  hose  led  into  the  conning-tower 
so  that  the  vessel  was  always  supplied  with  air.  Cast  era's 
submarine  was,  in  point  of  fact,  a  "  wrecking  boat  "  or  "  under- 
water worker  "  comparable  in  many  respects  to  other  more 
modern  boats  of  the  kind  such  as  the  Argonauts.  Like  them 
it  had  its  air-lock,  by  means  of  which  divers  could  descend  into 
the  water,  it  had  scuttles  in  the  bottom  for  the  examination  of 
the  sea-floor,  while  long  leathern  gauntlets  hung  from  its  under  - 
part  by  means  of  which  objects  could  be  grasped  by  men 
inside.  She  was  to  be  propelled  by  oars,  and  to  have  a  hori- 
zontal plane  or  rudder  right  forward  and  a  heavy  detachable 
leaden  keel  serving  as  a  safety-weight.2 

A  gentleman  rej  oicing  in  the  appalling  surname  of  Althabe- 
goity,  proposed  a  weird-looking  submarine  vessel  in  1856  which 
he  termed  a  "  Hydroscaphe."  A  model  of  it  was  made,  but  that 
is  as  far  as  it  went.  Looked  at  sideways  it  had  the  appearance 
of  a  brobdingnagian  lemon,  82  feet  long  and  nearly  40  feet 
in  diameter.  It  was  to  be  propelled  by  two  screws — one  at 
either  end — actuated  by  a  motor  the  nature  of  which  is  un- 
known, and  was  to  be  submerged  by  the  admission  of  water 
and  the  action  of  a  big  horizontal  propeller  standing  well  up 
above  the  top  of  the  hull.  The  Hydroscaphe  was  wood-built 
and  maintained  its  connection  with  the  air  by  means  of  a  tall 

1  He  had  brought  out  a  "  project  "  f or  a  submarine  as  far  back 
as  1796. 

2  Another  of  Castera's  projects  was  to  equip  his  boat  with  four 
wheels  of  large  diameter  which  could  be  turned  by  cranks  from 
inside  and  so  move  on  the  sea-bottom — an  anticipation  of  Lake's 
idea. 


240 


THE    STORY   OF   THE    SUBMARINE 


funnel  or  cylinder  containing  a  ladder  leading  down  into  the 
boat.  The  whole  affair  was  much  more  funny  than  practical. 
One  of  the  last  attempts  to  solve  the  problem  of  under- 
water attack  made  by  Bauer,  that  clever  but  very  unfortunate 
inventor,  was  with  his  design  for  a  submarine  which  he  termed 
"  Le  Bruleur  des  Cotes."  This  was  in  1861,  and  under  the 
auspices  of  Die  Gartenlaube  1  a  subscription  was  set  on  foot  to 
provide  the  necessary  funds  for  its  construction.  But  not  half  the 


ALTHABEQOITY'S  PEOPOSED  SUBMARINE,   1856. 

estimated  cost  was  forthcoming,  and  the  project  had  to  be  given 
up.  The  vessel  may  be  best  described  in  Bauer's  own  words  : 2 
"  This  coast-defence  vessel  is  in  the  form  of  a  whale.  Its  hull 
is  of  iron,  and  provided  with  engines  of  100  h.p.  which 
will  enable  it  to  travel  and  manoeuvre  at  great  speed  at  the 
surface  of  the  water  till  it  arrives  within  cannon-shot  of  the 
enemy's  ships  ;  thenceforward  it  dives  to  the  depth  of  about 
30  feet  and  then  approaches  them  either  on  the  bow  or  broad- 

1  A  popular  journal. 

2  Quoted  by  Pesce  in  "La  Navigation  Sous-marine." 


PROPOSED   SUBMARINES 


241 


sides,  being  careful  to  avoid  touching  the  enemy's  ship,  to 
whom  it  should  not  give  the  least  indication  of  its  presence. 
Having  arrived  at  its  destination,  the  submarine  fires  its 
torpedo  " — which,  it  should  be  said,  was  to  be  carried  in  a 
species  of  mortar  like  a  gigantic  pipe-bowl  protruding  from 
the  bow — "  by  means  of  a  channel  of  communication  forward  ; 


BAUER'S  PROPOSED  "  BRULEUR  DBS  COTES,"   1861. 

the  explosion  being  vertical,  would  make  a  hole  at  least  one 
and  a  half  or  two  feet  in  diameter.  After  this  operation,  it 
rises  to  the  surface  in  a  parabolic  curve  by  aid  of  its  vertical 
means  of  propulsion,  opens  the  portholes  in  its  upper-works, 
profits  by  the  consternation  of  the  enemy's  crew  to  run  along- 
side and  give  him  a  broadside  at  point-blank  range,  and  again 
disappears  in  the  waves  to  avoid  being  boarded  by  the  enemy. 
At  this  moment  the  marine  colossus,  seeing  itself  helpless  and 
abandoned  without  assistance,  will  surrender  to  the  pitiful 

16 


242 


THE   STORY   OF   THE    SUBMARINE 


submarine  with  its  double  mode  of  propulsion,  and  they  will 
say  that  the  Goliath  has  been  vanquished  by  David." 

The  queer  oblong  submarine  patented  by  M.  Hubault  of 
Amiens  in  1857  was  not  very  unlike  Castera's  in  general 
design,  but  a  rather  more  crude  affair.  It  had  the  float, 
but  with  two  tubes  leading  to  it  instead  of  one,  the  idea 
being  that  the  good  air  was  to  come  into  the  boat  through 
one,  the  bad  or  vitiated  air  departing  by  the  other.  But  it 
had  not  the  air-lock,  horizontal  rudder,  and  other  useful 
fittings  of  the  older  design.  The  long  gloves  were  there, 


HOVGAARD'S  PROPOSED  SUBMARINE,   1887. 

though — four  pairs  of  them — not  to  mention  some  odd  con- 
trivances which  enabled  the  crew  to  stick  out  their  heads 
as  well.  She  had  a  hand-turned  propeller  and  a  species 
of  light-projector  forward,  though  how  the  searchlight  itself 
was  provided  does  not  appear.  Her  odd  appearance  is  really 
the  only  excuse  for  mentioning  Hubault' s  submarine. 

A  very  different  affair  was  the  under- water  boat  so  carefully 
thought  out  and  described  by  Lieutenant  Hovgaard  of  the 
Royal  Swedish  Navy  in  a  little  pamphlet  he  published  in  1887. 
His  proposed  submarine  was  to  be  of  the  usual  cigar  shape, 
but  it  was  not  round  in  cross-section  but  oval,  being  nearly 
twice  as  wide  as  deep.  Its  bows  were  inclined  to  bluffness, 


PROPOSED    SUBMARINES  243 

but  it  fined  away  very  much  aft.  Near  the  forepart  was  a 
kind  of  excrescence  or  superstructure  which  held  a  detachable 
safety-boat  to  enable  the  crew  to  escape  in  case  of  accident. 
It  was  carried  in  a  species  of  dock  just  as  was  the  similar 
boat  in  Bourgeois'  Plongeur.  The  total  displacement  of 
Hovgaard's  ideal  boat  was  740  tons,  so  that  it  would  have 
been  a  submarine  of  the  very  largest  kind.  Like  Nordenfeldt's 
and  Waddington's  boats,  she  was  to  have  horizontal  propellers 
for  vertical  movement  to  aid  in  ascent  and  descent.  These 
were  placed  in  recesses  almost  amidships.  A  single  screw 
served  for  forward  propulsion,  and,  as  in  most  of  the  very  latest 
submarines,  two  motive  powers  were  arranged  for — steam, 
for  use  when  at  the  surface,  and  electricity  for  under-water 
progression.  From  the  forepart  of  the  superstructure  a  big 
telescopic  ventilator  could  be  pushed  up  to  a  considerable 
height,  and,  as  it  was  four  feet  in  diameter,  it  served  also  for 
a  hatchway  when  the  boat  was  only  a  short  way  below  the 
surface.  Just  abaft  this  and  on  either  side  was  a  diminutive 
conning- tower,  the  steering-room  being  just  beneath  them, 
while  at  the  after  end  of  the  superstructure  was  a  telescopic 
funnel.  When  the  boat  was  at  the  surface  and  both  funnel 
and  ventilator  were  raised,  a  light  bridge  or  hurricane  deck 
could  be  fitted  between  them  for  convenience  in  navigating. 
As  armament  the  proposed  submarine  was  to  carry  four 
Whitehead  torpedo  tubes,  two  being  placed  side  by  side  at 
the  bow  and  the  remaining  pair  in  the  steering-room,  one 
on  either  broadside.  In  addition  to  these,  provision  was 
made  for  running  out  a  torpedo  at  the  end  of  a  long  telescopic 
spar  at  the  bows.  Altogether  Hovgaard's  submarine  would 
seem  to  have  been  one  of  the  most  practical  designs  that 
had  been  produced,  and  it  seems  a  pity  that  plans  so  well 
and  carefully  worked  out  should  not  have  resulted  in  the 
construction  of  what  bid  fair  to  be  a  really  practical  and 
efficient  war-vessel.  As  such  it  serves  very  well  as  a  foil 
for  the  next  boat  to  be  described,  which  is  no  other  than  the 


244          THE    STOEY   OF   THE    SUBMARINE 

fantastic   revolving   submarine   imagined   by   M.   Apostoloff, 
a  Russian  student  of  electrical  science. 

Now  if  there  is  one  thing  more  than  another  that  has  been 
clearly  proved  by  every  trial  of  every  submarine  that  has 
taken  place,  it  is  that,  the  power  of  propulsion  being  equal, 
the  speed  under  water,  when  the  whole  boat  is  submerged, 
falls  very  much  below  that  at  the  surface,  even  though  the 
lines  of  a  submarine  are  specially  designed  for  the  former 
conditions  and  not  for  the  latter.  In  spite  of  this,  there 
are  and  have  been  a  great  number  of  persons,  some  of  them 
really  students  of  navigation  both  above  and  below  water, 


APOSTOLOFF'S  PROPOSED  SUBMARINE,   1889. 

who  cannot  get  rid  of  the  idea  that  a  boat  can  be  built  to 
travel  under  water  at  a  speed  which  cannot  be  approached 
by  any  above- water  craft  that  ever  floated.  Among  these 
must  be  reckoned  M.  Apostoloff  (though  by  this  time  he 
surely  must  have  disabused  his  mind  of  the  idea) ,  for  the  weird 
submarine  he  designed  in  1889  was  to  be  capable,  he  alleged, 
of  crossing  the  Atlantic  in  no  more  than  28  hours  ! !  In  order, 
as  he  thought,  to  overcome  the  frictional  resistance  of  the 
water  which  so  seriously  retards  a  submarine  vessel, — for 
the  simple  reason  that  the  whole  of  the  hull  is  submerged 
instead  of  about  a  third,  as  is  the  case  in  an  ordinary  boat, — 
M.  Apostoloff  adopted  in  the  design  of  his  boat  the  principle 
of  a  boring  screw.  Its  entire  body  is  itself  a  screw  which 


PROPOSED    SUBMARINES 


245 


bores  or  worms  its  way  through  the  water.  The  revolving 
portion  of  the  hull,  however,  finishes  just  before  a  little  conning- 
tower  which  is  placed  close  to  the  stern,  which  is  finished  off 
by  a  species  of  cross- shaped  rudder  like  the  paper  "  feathers  " 
which  schoolboys  fix  into  the  end  of  a  penholder  to  transform 
it  into  a  dart.  Working  on  a  kind  of  universal  joint,  it  is 
supposed  to  be  able  to  deflect  the  boat  up  or  down,  right  or 
left,  or  in  fact  in  any  direction  whatever.  The  part  of  the 
boat  that  revolves  in  the  water  is  of  course  only  the  outside 
shell,  which  works  on  an  axle  running  the  whole  length  of 


LACA  VALERIE'S  PROPOSED  SUBMARINE,  1894. 

the  submarine,  and  around  it  is  fixed  a  screw  flange  converting 
about  three-quarters  of  the  boat  into  a  huge  propelling  screw 
which  was  to  be  driven  by  electric  motors.  Possibly  to  meet 
the  views  of  intending  passengers,  who,  while  taken  with 
the  idea  of  crossing  the  stormy  Atlantic  at  lightning  speed, 
hesitated  to  book  passages  in  the  interior  of  a  vessel  which 
added  to  the  ordinary  risks  attendant  on  submarine  navigation 
a  chance  of  a  jam  in  the  machinery  which  might  turn  the 
saloon  into  a  huge  merry-go-round,  Apostoloff  suggested  a 
modification  of  his  first  scheme.  The  submarine  was  to  be 
there  just  as  before,  but  lofty  pillars  at  bow  and  stern  were 
to  support  between  them  a  big  swinging  upper  hull  something 
like  an  ordinary  decked  boat,  but  hanging  in  the  air  clear  of 


246 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 


the  waves.  So  far  as  is  known,  neither  in  one  form  nor  the 
other  has  the  Apostoloff  crossed  the  Herring  Pond  up  to  this 
day. 

A  South  American,  living  at  Colon,  Lacavalerie  by  name 
and  a  dentist  by  profession,  made  elaborate  plans  for  a  some- 
what similar  vessel  in  1894.  Whether  he  cribbed  the  idea  from 
Apostoloff' s  published  designs,  or  whether  it  was  suggested 
to  him  by  his  boring  operations  in  the  teeth  of  his  patients, 
is  not  known.  Anyway  he  designed  two  kinds  of  submarines 
propelled  in  exactly  the  same  way  as  ApostolofFs  proposed 
vessel.  In  the  first  the  bow  and  stern  were  connected  by 


ROGERS'  PROPOSED  SUBMARINE,  1894. 

a  strong  keel  and  the  revolving  portion  hung  between  them, 
the  flanges  on  it  only  making  a  very  gradual  turn.  In  his 
later  design  the  revolving  portion  was  almost  exactly  similar 
to  that  of  Apostoloff' s  design,  the  main  external  difference 
between  the  two  boats  being  in  the  rudders,  which  in  Laca- 
valerie's  boat  were  four  in  number,  each  like  half  a  fish's 
tail.  This  boat  has  not  crossed  the  Atlantic  either.  It 
may  be  noted  in  passing,  that  though  hitherto  unattended 
with  success,  this  form  of  propulsion  seems  to  possess  a 
fascination  for  a  number  of  inventors  not  only  of  submarines, 
but  of  surface  vessels.  We  may  mention  Bluemel  of  San 
Francisco,  Gresham  of  Brooklyn,  and  a  Canadian  inventor, 


PROPOSED    SUBMARINES 


247 


all  of  whom  have  patented  designs  for  such  ships  or  boats, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  water  velocipedes  and  cycles  invented 
by  Breyer  and  Moxon. 

Silas  and  George  Rogers  of  Brighton  carried  out  an  ingenious 
application  of  the  method  of  sinking  and  rising  by  means  of 
alteration  in  displacement  in  the  design  for  a  submarine 
which  they  patented  in  1894.  Instead  of  effecting  this  by 
means  of  a  series  of  cylinders  as  in  the  Campbell  and  Ash  boat, 
their  idea  was  to  make  the  boat  itself  telescopic.  The  foremost 
three-quarters  of  the  vessel — which  was  cylindrical  with 
pointed  ends — was  made  a  shade  larger  than  the  afterpart, 


VOQT'S  SEMI-SUBMABINE,  1898. 

which  fitted  into  it,  the  joint  being  made  water-tight  by 
circular  rings  of  packing.  When  the  boat  was  required  to 
go  below  water  her  displacement  was  reduced  by  drawing 
in  the  afterpart  by  means  of  a  big  screw  and  hydraulic  appa- 
ratus. This  operation  was  reversed  when  it  was  desired  to 
come  up  again.  Rogers'  boat  was  to  be  propelled  by  twin 
screws  actuated  by  electricity,  and  was  expected  to  attain 
a  speed  of  from  12  to  14  knots.  Another  peculiarity  about 
this  telescopic  submarine  was  that  her  conning-tower  was 
designed,  so  to  speak,  to  be  a  boat  in  itself.  Should  any 
untoward  accident  befall  the  vessel  while  in  the  depths,  all 
the  captain  and  his  crew  (who  would  be  with  him  in  the 
conning-tower)  would  have  to  do  would  be  to  follow  the 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

example  of  the  rats  who  proverbially  "  leave  a  sinking  ship." 
They  would  be  able  to  disengage  the  tower  from  the  foundering 
submarine  and  "  bob  up  serenely  from  below."  Somehow  or 
other  this  rather  plausible  submarine  has  not  "  caught  on  " 
nor  even  been  built. 

Though  not  a  true  submarine,  the  "  high-speed  semi- 
submersible  "  patented  by  Vogt  in  1898  is  worthy  of  mention. 
The  lower  and  principal  portion  of  her  hull  was  exactly  like 
a  cigar-shaped  submarine,  but  attached  to  it  was  an  above- 
water  superstructure  like  a  shallow  boat  carrying  a  species 
of  flying-deck  between  the  funnels.  Why  a  vessel  of  this 
form  should  be  expected  to  attain  an  exceptional  rate  of 
speed  does  not  appear. 


CHAPTER   XIX 
MORE  INVENTORS'  IDEAS  FOR  SUBMARINE  VESSELS 


249 


CHAPTER    XIX 

MORE  INVENTORS'  IDEAS  FOR  SUBMARINE  VESSELS 

Tomassi's  "  Hemi-plongeur" — Jacquemin's  proposed  Semi-submarine 
— Gerber's  Fantastic  Design — De  Souza's  Triple  Submarine 
— Elias'  Little  Vessel — Moller's  Queer  Design — Ponthus' 
Submarine — Goubet's  proposed  Transatlantic  Submarine — 
Burgoyne's  Design  for  a  Submarine  Torpedo-boat  with 
Armoured  Deck — Submarines  Proposed  by  Fife,  Haipar,  Neves, 
and  Simpson. 

APOSTOLOFF'S  second  design,  with  its  saloon  suspended  above 
the  surface  of  the  sea,  may  have  been  suggested  to  the  inventor 
by  a  quaint  proposal  for  a  semi-submarine  vessel  which 
Donati  Tomassi,  an  Italian  engineer,  brought  forward  in 
1876.  He  called  his  boat  a  "  Hemi-plongeur."  The  vessel, 
if  the  word  is  permissible  for  such  a  quaint  seagoing  affair — 
consisted  of  two  parts,  a  cylindrical  submarine  with  coned 
ends  and  a  circular  platform  supported  on  a  pair  of  big 
round  colums  which  raised  it  some  way  above  the  surface. 
These  columns  were  of  considerable  diameter,  so  that,  being 
hollow,  they  were  available  as  hatchways  for  both  passengers 
and  cargo.  They  were  also  made  telescopic  so  that  the 
submarine  portion  of  the  contrivance  could  sink  to  a  greater 
depth  below  the  surface  when  rough  weather  came  on  and 
so  be  less  affected  by  the  waves.  But  the  inventor  can 
hardly  have  had  any  sea- experience,  or  he  would  have  perceived 
that  such  an  arrangement  might  well  lead  to  the  destruction 
of  his  boat.  A  big  wave  breaking  below  the  platform  would 
in  all  probability  tear  it  from  its  supports,  the  water  would 
rush  in  and  sink  the  submarine  in  an  instant,  and  the  platform 

251 


252 


THE    STOKY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 


would  not  be  very  long  in  following  it  to  the  bottom.  Yet 
Tomassi  was  so  pleased  with  his  idea  that  he  suggested  that 
it  might  be  found  useful  in  war  as  well  as  in  commerce,  if 
gun-turrets  were  mounted  upon  the  upper  platform. 

A  Frenchman,  M.  Delavaque,  produced  a  model  of  a  sub- 
marine in  1874  which  is  interesting  on  account  of  the  two 
horizontal  propellers  for  sinking  and  ascending.  They  were 
placed  under  the  boat  one  at  either  end,  and  possibly  furnished 


tM 


TOMASSl'S    "  HEMI-PLONGEUR,''     1876. 

the  germ  of  the  idea  perfected  by  Nordenfeldt,  Waddington, 
and  later  inventors. 

Another  queer  idea  for  a  semi- sub  marine  was  suggested 
in  1884  by  one  Jacquemin,  a  dockyard  employee  at  Ciotat. 
His  vessel  was  to  be  of  the  ordinary  cigar  shape,  but  it  was 
only  intended  to  travel  at  a  very  short  distance  below  the 
surface.  A  high,  narrow  hatchway  stood  up  above  the  centre 
of  the  boat  and  projected  above  the  surface,  thus  affording 
a  copious  supply  of  air  to  the  crew  and  forming  a  kind  of 
look-out  place  for  the  captain.  She  was  fitted  with  all  kinds 
of  apparatus  for  the  use  of  divers,  including  air-locks  for  their 


MORE   INVENTORS'   IDEAS 


253 


ingress  and  egress  and  leather  arms  and  hoods  by  means  of  which 
they  were  supposed  to  be  able  to  lean  out  of  the  boat  below  water 
and  use  their  hands  for  under-water  work.  The  most  curious 


.._^r^ _.._ 


DELAVAQUE'S  PROPOSED  SUBMARINE,  1874. 

part  about  the  idea  is  that,  the  boat  having  to  keep  so  close  to 
the  surface,  it  offered  no  particular  facility  for  diving  purposes. 
It  did  not  take  the  divers  appreciably  nearer  their  objective 
than  a  surface  boat  would  have  done.  She  was  to  be  fitted 


JACQUEMIN'S  PROPOSED  SUBMARINE,   1884. 


with  an  escape  boat  like  that  carried  by  Bourgeois  and  Brun's 
Pfottgretir1  and  in  Hovgaard's2  proposed  submarine. 

The  submarine  vessel  which  was  proposed  by  Mr.  Gerber 


Vide  Chapter  VIII. 


2   Vide  Chapter  XVIII. 


254  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

of  San  Francisco  in  1887  is  one  of  the  most  crude  and  extra- 
ordinary affairs — if  the  inventor's  diagram  is  anything  like 
his  real  idea — that  were  ever  conceived — so  much  so  that  it 
can  hardly  be  considered  the  product  of  a  sane  or  serious 
mind.  At  a  period  when  steam  and  electricity  were  at  his 
disposal  for  propelling  purposes,  to  suggest  that  his  vessel 
should  move  about  by  aid  of  hand- worked  paddles  and  wheels 
actuated  by  twisted  elastic  is  an  obvious  anachronism,  and 
when  we  find  the  inventor  stating  that  the  principal  object 
for  which  he  wishes  to  construct  his  submarine  is  to  look 
for  Pharaoh's  chariot-wheels  at  the  bottom  of  the  Red  Sea,  we 
begin  to  wonder  whether  Mr.  Gerber  should  be  taken  seriously. 

A  Brazilian,  M.  Virissimo  Barboza  de  Souza,  had  a  rather 
ingenious  idea  for  a  submarine  in  1891,  if  it  should  have  proved 
workable.  But  as  it  was  never  built,  this  question  has  not 
yet  been  decided.  His  scheme  provided  for  a  long  cylin- 
drical vessel  with  coned  ends,  its  engines  being  driven  by 
whatever  motive  power  should  eventually  be  considered 
most  suitable  for  it  by  the  experts.  He  was  not  particular 
himself  as  to  which  was  chosen,  as  long  as  it  drove  his 
boat  along.  But  the  unique  part  of  the  invention  was 
that  the  central  portion  of  his  proposed  submarine  was  a 
complete  little  vessel  in  itself,  so  that  in  the  event  of  an 
accident,  either  the  foremost,  after,  or  both  parts  of  the  sub- 
marine could  be  dropped,  like  a  lizard's  tail,  and  the  remainder 
would  still  be  able  to  get  along  comfortably  "  on  its  own." 

Two  rather  curious  ideas  for  submarine  navigation  were 
projected  in  1898.  The  first  of  these  was  a  little  lemon-shaped 
four-tonner  proposed  by  Castello  y  Elias,  only  just  big  enough 
to  carry  one  man  and  one  torpedo,  which  almost  filled  a  tube 
that  ran  right  along  through  the  axis  of  the  little  vessel. 
The  whole  of  the  hull  above  this  tube  was  packed  solid  with 
cork  except  for  a  small  central  compartment  for  the  "operator," 
who  was  intended  to  wear  a  diving  suit  and  helmet,  while  below 
were  a  number  of  cylindrical  reservoirs  containing  compressed 


MORE   INVENTORS'    IDEAS  255 

air  for  working  the  engines  and  for  supplying  the  diver.  A 
small  cylinder  of  highly  compressed  air  was  placed  in  the 
central  tube — behind  the  torpedo  for  its  ejection. 

In  the  same  year,  an  inventor  named  Moller  brought  out 
a  design  for  a  submarine  worker,  whose  shape  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  describe.  It  can  only  be  vaguely  hinted  at 
as  an  ovoid  bent  askew.  In  the  diagram  that  the  designer 
has  produced,  the  interior  of  the  boat  presents  the  appearance 
of  a  piece  of  a  factory  with  a  good  deal  of  brickwork  and  a 
large  glazed  window,  though  possibly  what  look  like  window- 
panes  and  bricks  may  be  intended  to  represent  something 
very  different.  The  boat  has  no  visible  means  of  propulsion, 
although  there  is  an  engine  with  a  big  cylinder  and  a  flywheel. 
The  captain  of  this  boat  is  supposed  to  act  in  a  role  similar 
to  that  of  the  commander  of  Tuck's  first  submarine.1  He 
wears  a  diver's  suit  and  takes  his  stand  in  a  sort  of  sentry- 
box,  which  can  be  pushed  out  of  the  top  of  the  vessel  by 
machinery  arranged  for  the  purpose.  He  stands  facing 
aft,  and  ready  to  release  a  buoyant  torpedo  which  reposes 
in  a  little  well  beside  him. 

A  M.  Ponthus,  a  Frenchman,  who  may  be  described  as 
an  inveterate  inventor  of  submarine  apparatus,  had  a  very 
novel — albeit  probably  impossible — idea  for  increasing  the 
speed  of  a  submarine  which  he  proj  ected  in  1901 .  He  imagined 
that  her  propellers,  of  which  she  had  three, — one  at  each  end 
and  a  third  underneath  amidships, — would  revolve  so  rapidly 
that  they  would  create  a  species  of  vacuum  around  them 
and  so  prevent  them  exerting  their  full  driving  power  on 
the  water.  To  get  over  this  imaginary  difficulty  he  hit  upon 
the  expedient  of  blowing  the  water  back  on  the  screws  by 
means  of  jets  of  compressed  air. 

He  estimated  that,  aided  in  this  way,  they  would  be  able 
to  drive  his  boat  through  the  water  at  the  enormous  speed 
of  40  miles  an  hour.  The  submarine  herself  was  in  the  form 
1  Vide  Chapter  XI. 


256  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMAEINE 

of  a  short,  fat  cigar,  with  a  conning-tower  and  hatch  amidships. 
The  four  rudders — two  horizontal  and  two  vertical — were 
placed  just  abaft  the  conning-tower.  She  was  equipped 
with  four  external  and  detachable  weights  and  an  arrangement 
for  projecting  an  electric  ray  in  front  of  her.  The  central 
screw,  besides  assisting  to  drive  her  forward,  was  expected, 
in  some  unexplained  way,  to  add  considerably  to  her  stability. 
A  submarine  of  large  size,  and  so  differing  considerably 
from  his  other  boats,  was  designed  at  one  time  by  the  eminent, 
though  financially  unsuccessful,  Goubet.  Like  ApostolofFs 
nightmare  of  a  boat,  it  was  intended  to  revolutionise  trans- 
atlantic travel.  The  following  are  extracts  from  a  general 
description  published  in  1902.1  Exact  details  are  not  pro- 
curable. "  The  marvellous  craft  which  he  [M.  Goubet] 
has  perfected  will  cross  the  Atlantic,  and  remain  under  water 
half  the  journey — 3000  miles.  Should  the  Goubet  trans- 
atlantic arrive  off  New  York  at  night  in  a  tremendous  storm, 
she  need  not  waste  time  and  money  in  beating  on  and  off, 
or  anchoring  outside  the  harbour.  She  can  approach  under 
water,  announcing  her  coming  by  signal  fuses,  until,  arriving 
in  the  channel,  she  can  arise  if  she  pleases  and  proceed  to 
Quarantine's  tranquil  water.  It  requires  no  expert  to  ap- 
preciate some  of  the  advantages  such  a  vessel  as  Goubet' s 
has  over  the  greatest  transatlantic  liners.  The  Nautilus 
of  the  twentieth  century  can  have  no  fear  of  the  mightiest 
storm  that  ever  strewed  its  path  with  drifting  hulks. 
For,  watching  the  barometer,  the  captain  of  Goubet' s  electrer 
— will  that  name  fit  a  steamer  driven  by  electricity  ? — will  fill 
the  water  reservoirs  for  immersion,  and  on  the  near  approach 
of  a  storm  will  take  a  header  down  below.  There,  far  under 
the  tremendous  waves  that  are  curling  over  the  funnels  of 
the  surface  boats,  Goubet's  vessel  will  keep  on  her  quiet 
way  until  the  storm  spends  its  force.  The  Goubet  boat  will 
have  eyes  and  the  sharpest  kind  of  ears.  Its  eyes  will 
1  In  the  Illustrated  Mail. 


p.  256] 


BAIXOOX    LOOKING    FOR    SUBMARINES. See    p.    282. 

By  favour  of  the  Sphere. 


MOKE   INVENTORS'    IDEAS 


257 


not  only  be  electric  searchlights  to  illuminate  its  submarine 
path,  but,  being  under  water,  it  will  be  able  to  see  above 
water — this  by  means  of  the  new  French  cleptoscope,  an 
instrument  composed  of  mirrors  and  prisms  and  telescoping 
tubes,  of  which  the  top  one  projects  above  the  surface  of  the 
water.  .  .  .  When  heavy  fog's  impenetrable  wall  shuts  out 
sea  and  sky,  the  Goubet  boat  can  be  quickly  submerged  and 
safely  pursue  its  way.  So,  until  submarine  boats  become  as 
numerous  as  fishes,  any  one  of  them  is  entirely  safe  from 
collision."  .  .  .  And  so  forth.  And  yet  we  still  brave 
the  Atlantic  in  above- water  vessels  ! 


BURGOYNE'S  PROPOSED  ARMOURED  SUBMERSIBLE,  1904. 

Mr.  Allan  Burgoyne,  the  author  of  that  very  interesting 
and  compendious  work  "  Submarine  Navigation,  Past  and 
Present,"  has  designed  an  armoured  submersible  in  which 
are  to  be  found  many  of  the  best  points  for  which  the  most 
successful  and  well-designed  submarines  are  remarkable. 
"  According  to  the  plans,1  the  boat  would  be  140  feet  long, 
with  a  beam  of  12  feet.  She  would  have  a  somewhat  peculiar 
shape,  her  forepart  being  very  like  that  of  a  torpedo-boat 
or  a  destroyer,  while  her  after -portion  would  be  of  the  familiar 
cigar  shape  usual  in  submarines.  The  conning-tower — which 
is  armoured — is  so  designed  that  it  could  be  raised  to  a  con- 
siderable height  above  its  normal  position,  so  that  when  the 
boat  is  lying  close  under  the  surface  it  could  be  pushed  up  to 
1  Daily  Graphic- 

17 


258  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

reconnoitre  without  any  other  part  being  exposed,  and  quickly 
lowered  below  water  again.  Provision  is  made  for  the  escape 
of  the  crew  should  any  damage  or  accident  prevent  the  boat 
from  coming  to  the  surface.  A  closed  cylinder  fits  into  a 
recess  immediately  abaft  the  conning-tower,  in  which  escape 
is  effected.  The  armament  of  the  proposed  submersible  is 
to  consist  of  three  torpedo  tubes.  Of  these,  one  is  placed 
forward  and  the  other  two — one  above  the  other — right 
aft.  .  .  .  She  will  have  a  24-cylinder  oil  engine  of  500  h.p. 
for  surface  propulsion,  when  a  speed  of  from  14  to  15  knots 
is  expected,  her  shape  forward  being  much  more  suited 
for  speed  in  this  position  than  is  that  of  most  submarine 
craft.  When  below  water,  an  electric  motor  of  from  250 
to  300  h.p.  will  be  brought  into  requisition,  which  will  drive 
her  through  the  water  at  7  knots.  Awash,  8  knots  is  the 
estimated  rate  of  progression.  She  is  to  have  twin  4-bladed 
propellers,  well  bracketed  out  to  port  and  starboard.  She 
will  have  three  keels,  one  in  the  usual  position,  and  the 
other  two — which  perhaps  should  be  rather  called  bilge- 
pieces — one  on  each  side,  so  that  rolling  and  pitching  should 
be  reduced  to  a  minimum.  The  forepart  of  these  side-keels 
terminates  in  a  horizontal  rudder,  which,  together  with  those 
which  are  placed  right  aft,  serve  to  guide  the  vessel  up  or 
down  when  submerged  and  keep  her  at  the  required  level. 
For  this  purpose  balance  cylinders  are  also  provided,  forward 
and  aft,  so  arranged  that  as  water  is  drawn  into  one  an  equal 
amount  is  expelled  from  the  other.  In  short,  the  boat  will 
have  every  appliance  that  the  most  exacting  submarine  could 
require,  even  to  an  electric -light  projector  which  comes  up 
through  a  specially  constructed  hatch  in  front  of  the  conning- 
tower."  Finally  it  must  be  mentioned  that  the  whole  portion 
of  the  boat  that  would  appear  above  water  in  an  awash 
position  is  well  protected  by  armour  plating. 

Another  recent  submarine  design  is  that  of  Mr.  C.  W.  Fife 
of  Brighton,  a  young  man  who  has  devoted  four  years'  study 


MORE   INVENTORS'    IDEAS  259 

and  experiment  to  it.  "  In  shape  *  the  craft  is  not  dissimilar 
to  the  type  now  in  use  in  our  Navy,  but  it  is  with  added 
inventions  that  he  claims  his  success.  First  and  foremost 
among  the  advantages  claimed  for  the  new  submarine  is 
that  while  travelling  submerged,  if  by  accident  it  should  come 
in  contact  with  a  rock,  or  a  sunken  wreck,  even  should  a 
hole  have  been  made  in  the  craft,  she  will  at  once  rise  auto- 
matically to  the  surface.  On  the  other  hand,  should  she  be 
run  down  by  a  passing  vessel  while  being  partially  submerged, 
she  would  remain  on  the  surface,  thus  rendering  impossible 
such  a  disaster  as  that  which  befell  the  Al.  It  is  the  boast 
of  the  inventor  also  that  his  boat  will  be  able  to  remain  sub- 
merged with  the  full  necessary  crew  on  board  for  as  lengthy 
a  period  as  ten  days  without  in  any  way  communicating  with 
the  surface  of  the  sea.  Enough  fresh  air  will  be  generated 
during  that  time  to  supply  those  aboard,  and  it  will  be  possible 
practically  to  regulate  the  temperature  of  the  boat  at  will.  .  .  . 
The  boats  when  constructed  will,  according  to  size,  carry 
three  or  five  torpedoes  and  a  submarine  gun,  and  by  means 
of  a  special  engine  and  propeller  and  the  enormous  force 
used,  Mr.  Fife  declares  that  a  speed  of  20  knots  on  the  surface 
and  18  knots  when  fully  submerged  will  be  easily  attained." 
These  are,  after  all,  generalities,  and  are  rather  suggestive 
of  the  sanguine  temperament  of  youth.  The  account  from 
which  the  above  description  is  taken  states  further  that  the 
model  was  to  be  experimented  with  by  the  Admiralty,  but 
if  it  was  approved  it  has  since  been  kept  such  a  dead  secret 
that  the  fact  that  there  are  any  such  boats  under  construction 
has  not  leaked  out. 

Two  or  three  more  descriptions  of  the  more  recent  fancies 
in  the  way  of  submarine  vessels  and  we  must  leave  the  con- 
sideration of  the  craft  that  have  never  really  existed,  except 
on  paper,  and  to  which  perhaps  more  space  has  already  been 
devoted  than  they  are  worth. 

1  Illustrated  Mail. 


260          THE   STORY   OF   THE    SUBMARINE 

Lieutenant  Haipar,  of  the  United  States  Navy,  is  responsible 
for  what  we  may  term  "  a  very  queer  fish."  His  proposed 
boat,  which  is  much  the  shape  of  an  oval  pocket-flask,  looks 
very  much  like  a  short,  podgy  fish,  the  big  rudder  taking  the 
place  of  the  tail.  The  shape  is  probably  designed  with  a 
view  to  giving  the  boat  the  maximum  amount  of  horizontal 
stability.  The  propellers,  of  which  there  are  two,  revolve 
in  recesses  cut  out  of  the  rudder,  and,  unlike  most  twin  screws, 
are  placed  not  side  by  side,  but  one  above  the  other.  She 
has  the  usual  conning-tower  amidships  and  carries  no  less 
than  four  Whitehead  torpedoes,  which  are  placed  two  on 
either  side  of  her,  one  over  the  other,  suspended  in  clips  or 
frames  fixed  to  the  outside  of  her  hull. 

Another  American  has  been  ingenious  enough  to  evolve 
a  submarine  of  a  unique  shape,  a  feat  which  one  would 
think  almost  impossible  when  one  considers  the  immense 
numbers  of  weird  under-water  vessels  that  have  been  either 
designed  or  built.  This  inventor,  Mr.  Thomas  Wheless  of 
New  York,  suggests  that  his  boat  should  be  built  on  very  much 
the  same  lines  as  an  ordinary  racing  yacht's  hull,  with  a  sharp 
spoon  bow  and  an  overhanging  stern.  Strictly  speaking 
this  vessel  ought  to  be  called  a  submersible  rather  than  a 
submarine,  for  though  intended  to  move  on  the  surface  it 
can  yet  be  submerged  at  will.  She  is  fitted  with  a  single 
screw,  a  pivoted  rudder,  and  is  steadied  by  a  heavy  weight 
amidships. 

A  Chilian  gentleman,  Don  Santiago  Neves  of  Valparaiso, 
has  not  long  since  designed  a  submarine  working  boat  which 
may  possibly  prove  a  useful  vessel — if  ever  constructed. 
It  is  very  much  in  the  form  of  a  long  sugar-cone,  the  stern, 
with  its  propellers  and  rudder,  being  the  smaller  end.  At 
the  other  is  the  conning-tower,  and  in  front  of  the  boat  a  most 
powerful  pair  of  claws  or  levers  opening  and  closing  by  hy- 
draulic power.  The  vessel,  like  Pozzo's  La  France,  *  is  intended 
*  Fide  Chapter  XVII. 


MORE    INVENTORS'    IDEAS 


261 


to  work  suspended  from  an  above-water  craft  by  a  chain, 
but  her  propellers — aided  by  six  others  placed  at  various 
parts  of  her  hull — enable  her  to  move  very  freely  about  her 
work  and  place  her  in  the  entire  control  of  her  captain.  Forward 
she  has  a  whole  array  of  specially  constructed  bull's-eye 
scuttles  and  an  electric-light  projector,  so  that  her  occupants 
will  have  no  difficulty  in  seeing  what  they  are  about.  Her 


SIMPSON'S  PROPOSED  SUBMARINE,  1906. 

inventor  states  that  he  has  specially  designed  her  for  raising 
weights  and  for  the  heavier  kinds  of  under-water  work. 

In  conclusion  we  may  mention  a  somewhat  "  neat-looking  " 
submarine  for  which  a  Mr.  George  Simpson  took  out  a  patent 
in  1906.  Among  her  peculiarities  may  be  noted  a  long 
overhanging  stern  which  serves  to  protect  her  rudder  and 
propeller,  a  big  horizontal  rudder  made  in  one  piece,  and  a 
queer  ventilator  which  acts  both  as  a  downtake  for  fresh 
air  and  an  outlet  for  foul.  She  is  to  fire  her  torpedoes  from 
a  bow  tube,  and  is  strengthened  externally  by  a  series  of 
longitudinal  plates  which  form  a  species  of  keel. 


CHAPTER    XX 

RECENT  SUBMARINE  DISASTERS  AND  ACCIDENTS 


263 


CHAPTER   XX 

RECENT  SUBMARINE  DISASTERS  AND  ACCIDENTS 

Loss  of  the  Al — Explosion  on  Board  the  A5 — Sinking  of  the  -48 — 
Foundering  of  the  Russian  Submarine  Delphin — Loss  of 
the  Farfadet — Sinking  of  the  Lutin — Slighter  Mishaps. 

THE  deep  has  taken  heavy  toll  of  lives  of  the  pioneers  of  sub- 
marine navigation,  as  we  have  recorded  in  previous  chapters. 
Many  inventors  and  many  who  have  trusted  themselves 
to  their  inventions,  have  looked  their  last  on  the  sky  when 
their  submarine  craft  has  dived  below  the  surface.  There 
was  Day,  who  with  his  submarine  contrivance  disappeared 
in  the  depths  of  Plymouth  Sound  in  1773  ;  Cervo,  crushed 
in  his  hollow  wooden  ball  in  1831 ;  Dr.  Petit,  who  suffered 
the  same  fate  at  Saint-Valery  three  years  later  ;  and  the  Yankee 
shoemaker,  Lodner  D.  Philips,  who  met  his  death  at  the  bottom 
of  Lake  Erie  early  in  the  'fifties.  More  recently,  as  boats  were 
generally  built  larger,  the  number  of  lives  lost  in  accidents 
to  submarine  craft  grows  heavier.  There  was  the  Confederate 
David,  which  time  after  time  drowned  her  crews  during  her 
trials,  finishing  up  by  drowning  all  hands  when  she  blew  up 
the  Housatonic.  We  have  seen,  too,  how  the  too  sanguine 
inventor  Herr  Flach  lost  not  only  his  own  life  but  those 
of  his  son  and  six  other  unfortunates  in  Valparaiso  harbour. 
All  these  casualties  occurred  during  what  we  have  termed  the 
experimental  period  of  the  evolution  of  the  submarine.  But 
there  have  been  a  good  many  others  since  the  submarine 
boat  has  become  a  recognised  naval  unit,  which  will  be  fresh 

265 


266  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

in  the  minds  of  most  readers.     We  may  briefly  refer  to  some 
of  the  most  recent. 

There  was  a  mishap  on  board  the  United  States  submarine 
Fulton  in  April  1902.  She  was  on  her  way  from  New  York 
to  Washington,  having  on  board,  besides  the  stored  electricity 
for  her  under- water  trials,  several  hundred  gallons  of  gasoline 
for  her  surface  engines.  Just  after  she  had  reached  Delaware 
Breakwater  there  was  an  explosion  of  hydrogen  gas,  which 
is  stated  to  have  been  caused  by  the  spilling  of  acid  from 
the  storage  batteries.  The  boat  herself  was  not  seriously 
damaged  and  was  able  to  continue  her  trials,  but  her  com- 
mander, several  of  her  crew,  and  an  Austrian  naval  officer 
who  was  on  board,  were  more  or  less  seriously  injured. 

The  next  disaster  to  be  chronicled  is  a  very  much  more 
dreadful  affair,  in  which  many  of  our  gallant  sailors  lost 
their  lives.  It  is  almost  superfluous  to  say  that  it  is  the  sad  loss 
of  the  submarine  A\  at  Spithead  in  1904  that  is  referred  to. 

This  boat  was  one  of  the  newest  and  finest  of  the  then 
novel  submarine  flotilla,  and  with  others,  in  conjunction  with 
gunboats  and  destroyers,  was  taking  part  in  an  extended  series 
of  manoeuvres,  in  which  their  duty  was  to  defend  the  ap- 
proaches to  Portsmouth  Harbour  against  the  attack  of  the 
Home  Fleet  of  battleships  and  cruisers.  In  the  course  of  the 
proceedings  it  became  the  task  of  A\  submarine  to  mount 
guard  over  the  Eastern  Channel  into  Spithead  not  far  from 
the  Nab  Lightship.  One  of  the  enemy's  cruisers  had  been 
sighted  in  that  neighbourhood,  and  the  unfortunate  submarine 
lay  awaiting  her  advent  with  only  the  top  of  her  periscope 
showing  above  water.  It  was  a  misty  afternoon,  and,  the 
"  eye  "  of  the  periscope  being  probably  turned  seaward,  the 
approach  of  the  liner  Berwick  Castle  coming  up  from  the 
direction  of  Southampton  was  not  observed.  Neither  did  the 
watch  on  board  the  steamer  catch  sight  of  the  diminutive  top 
of  the  periscope,  which  in  the  nature  of  things  was  made  as 
small  and  unobtrusive  as  was  compatible  with  efficiency  in 


HK|S^*g^-  '-   -r-  -     -' 


HO\V    THE    "  Al  "    WAS    LOST. 


p.  2G«] 


SUBMARINE    DISASTERS  267 

order  to  avoid  the  prying  eyes  of  the  look-outs  on  board  an 
enemy's  ships  of  war.  The  Berwick  Castle  then,  not  dreaming 
of  the  proximity  of  the  submarine,  passed  right  over  the  spot 
where  lay  the  doomed  AI,  which  unfortunately  for  herself  had 
— unlike  the  earlier  "  Hollands" — a  very  lofty  conning-tower. 

From  the  reports  of  the  divers  who  afterwards  examined  the 
wreck,  it  is  evident  that  the  liner  struck  her  at  the  top  of  this 
tower,  breaking  the  lid  and  letting  in  the  water  which  carried 
swift  death  to  the  devoted  crew  who — as  Admiral  Sir  John 
Fisher  aptly  pointed  out  in  his  general  orders — "  as  truly  lost 
their  lives  for  their  country  as  if  they  had  fallen  in  action 
with  its  enemies."  The  captain  of  the  Berwick  Castle  felt  that 
she  had  touched  something,  and  signalled  the  fact  to  the  nearest 
men-of-war.  He  told  them  that  he  thought  it  must  have 
been  a  practice  torpedo,  so  slight  was  the  shock.  This  signal 
was  remembered  later  on  at  the  rendezvous  when  the  A\ 
failed  to  appear,  and  instant  and  careful  search  revealed  her 
whereabouts.  Two  officers,  Lieutenant  Mansergh  and  Sub- 
Lieutenant  J.  P.  Churchill,  together  with  nine  men,  lost  their 
lives  in  this  terrible  catastrophe.  The  boat  was  discovered  lying 
in  42  feet  of  water,  and  owing  to  the  depth  and  the  strong 
tideway,  great  difficulty  was  experienced  in  getting  her  to 
the  surface ;  but  thanks  to  the  unremitting  exertions  of  the 
naval  officers  and  men  employed  on  the  work  and  the  assist- 
ance rendered  by  the  salvage  steamer  Belos,  she  was  eventually 
lifted  from  her  resting-place  and  brought  into  dock  at  Ports- 
mouth for  repair.  The  bodies  of  the  victims  of  the  disaster 
were  transferred  from  their  iron  tomb  to  the  consecrated 
ground  of  Haslar  Cemetery. 

Another  of  the  same  series  of  boats,  the  A5,  was  the 
scene  of  the  next  fatality.  On  the  morning  of  February  16, 
1905,  she  was  at  Queenstown  and  alongside  the  Hazard,  a 
gun-vessel  which  was  acting  as  a  tender  to  submarines,  filling 
her  petrol  tanks  from  the  supply  tank  on  the  deck  of  the  latter 
vessel.  Nearly  two  hours  had  elapsed  after  she  had  filled  up, 


268  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

during  which  time  her  crew  was  busily  employed  in  getting  the 
boat  ready  to  go  out  of  harbour,  when  an  explosion  occurred 
on  board.  It  is  supposed  that  petrol  vapour  had  leaked  out, 
mingled  with  air,  and  that  this  highly  inflammable  mixture 
was  ignited  by  sparking  from  an  electric  switch.  Whatever 
the  cause,  the  results  were  most  serious.  Her  commander, 
Lieutenant  Skinner,  and  five  men  were  killed  or  afterwards 
died  of  their  injuries,  and  every  man  onboard  was  incapacitated. 
While  the  crew  of  the  Hazard  were  engaged  in  removing  them 
from  the  submarine,  a  second  explosion  occurred  immediately 
below  the  conning-tower,  which,  while  not  so  disastrous  as  the 
first  one,  was  yet  responsible  for  further  injuries.  White 
mice  were  afterwards  kept  in  the  British  submarines,  which  act 
as  danger  indicators,  for  they  begin  to  squeak  the  moment 
there  is  the  slightest  hint  of  escaping  petrol  vapour. 

But  the  explosion  on  board  A5  does  not  end  the  tale  of  mis- 
haps to  the  "  A  "  Class.  Only  a  few  months  later — on  June  8,  to 
be  exact — the  .48  went  down  just  outside  Plymouth 
Breakwater  with  eighteen  men  on  board,  four  only  of  whom 
were  saved.  The  following  is  abridged  from  the  report  made 
by  the  Times  Plymouth  correspondent : 

"  A1  and  ^48  went  out  yesterday  morning  about  9  o'clock 
accompanied  by  torpedo-boat  No.  80,  for  evolutions. 
It  was  a  dull  grey  morning  with  rain  falling  at  intervals,  but 
the  weather  was  tolerably  clear.  The  two  submarines  were 
taken  to  the  western  end  of  the  Breakwater  for  instructional 
purposes.  Torpedo-boat  No.  80  carried  extra  ratings  to  be 
put  through  the  methods  of  diving  and  to  become  accustomed 
to  under-water  navigation.  All  the  men  wore  regulation  dress, 
special  oilskins  and  sea  boots.  Each  of  the  submarines  dived 
twice  for  the  specified  length  of  time.  About  half-past  ten 
both  submarines  came  up,  each  to  exchange  three  of  her  crew 
for  a  similar  number  of  ratings  from  the  torpedo-boat.  The 
conning-towers  were  opened  and  the  other  prescribed  regula- 
tions carried  out.  The  new  ratings  had  stepped  on  board 


SUBMARINE    DISASTERS  269 

the  sloping  deck,  and  the  three  men  to  be  exchanged  were  in 
the  act  of  coming  up,  when  the  bow  of  the  vessel  was  seen  to 
dip  heavily,  causing  her  to  ship  a  huge  quantity  of  water 
through  the  conning-tower.  Then,  to  the  great  consternation 
of  those  watching,  she  began  instantly  to  settle  down  before 
it  was  possible  to  close  the  conning-tower.  Lieutenant  Candy, 
it  was  noticed,  leaped  forward,  whilst  the  other  three  on  deck 
were  washed  off.  With  all  speed  boats  were  lowered  from  the 
Commonwealth,  the  Forth  and  the  torpedo-boat,  and  rowed  to 
the  scene  of  the  disaster.  A  dinghy  from  a  passing  ketch  was 
also  lowered  and  picked  up  one  survivor.  The  others  were 
rescued  by  the  other  craft  and  placed  on  board  the  torpedo- 
boat,  which  then  hurried  under  full  steam  to  land,  carrying 
tidings  of  the  disaster.  The  only  ray  of  hope  being  that, 
owing  to  the  length  of  time  the  submarine  took  to  disappear 
from  view  she  could  not  have  been  quickly  flooded,  the  rescue 
parties  worked  with  desperate  energy  on  this  forlorn  chance. 
Two  buoys  marked  the  spot,  and  Government  tugs  patrolled 
for  some  distance  around  to  preserve  a  clear  space  for  the 
operations  of  the  divers.  About  1  o'clock  an  explosion  was 
heard  and  wreckage  was  flung  up,  including  the  two  hatches 
of  the  AS.  A  second  explosion  followed,  eddying  bubbles 
disturbed  the  surface  of  the  water,  and  the  hope  of  rescuing 
the  imprisoned  men  became  extremely  faint." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  all  was  over  with  the  unfortunate  crew 
of  the  AS.  She  was  found  lying  in  20  fathoms  of  water 
between  Penlee  Point  and  the  western  end  of  the  Breakwater, 
her  conning-tower  open  and  the  glass  scuttles  let  into  the  deck 
broken,  though  otherwise  she  does  not  seem  to  have  sustained 
any  structural  damage  ;  and  having  been  brought  to  the  surface 
and  taken  into  dock,  is  again  in  her  place  in  the  Submarine 
Flotilla. 

But  the  British  Submarine  Service  had  not  a  monopoly  of 
such  accidents.  The  Delphin,  a  Russian  submarine  of  175 
tons,  sank  at  Cronstadt  on  June  20,  1904,  being  swamped  by 


270          THE    STOKY   OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

the  wash  of  a  passing  steamer.  Two  officers  and  twenty-four 
men  were  drowned.  Again,  the  foundering  of  our  own  AS 
was  pretty  quickly  followed  by  the  similar  fate  which  overtook 
the  French  submarine  Farfadet  at  Bizerta  on  July  6  of  the 
same  year.  The  unfortunate  boat  was  carrying  out  her 
diving  exercises  about  8.30  a.m.,  when  at  the  close  of  some 
surface  manoeuvre  she  began  to  dive  before  the  lid  of  the 
conning-tower  had  been  properly  fastened.  The  water  poured 
into  the  vessel,  compressing  the  air  contained  within  it.  This 
blew  out  the  commander  and  two  other  men  from  the  conning- 
tower,  who  thus  miraculously  escaped  the  fate  of  their  fourteen 
unhappy  comrades  who  went  down  in  the  submarine.  In 
spite  of  the  almost  superhuman  efforts  that  were  made  day 
after  day  by  the  officers  and  sailors  of  the  French  Navy 
stationed  at  Bizerta,  they  were  unable  to  save  from  death — 
and  a  terrible  lingering  death — the  unfortunate  men  im- 
prisoned in  the  metal  sarcophagus  which  the  Farfadet  had 
become.  For  it  was  known  that  they,  or  at  any  rate  a  portion 
of  them,  were  alive  for  some  days,  as  they  responded  to  the 
knocks  made  by  the  divers  on  the  outside  of  the  hull.  Indeed  at 
one  time  hopes  were  entertained  of  their  rescue,  for  the  after- 
part  of  the  boat  was  raised  to  the  surface.  But  the  crane 
broke,  down  she  went  again,  and  then  all  hope  was  over.  For 
it  was  not  till  ten  days  had  elapsed  that  the  Farfadet  was 
eventually  brought  to  the  surface  and  taken  into  the  dock- 
yard. This,  as  far  as  is  known,  seems  to  have  been  the 
most  dreadful  submarine  catastrophe  on  record.  The  victims 
of  the  earlier  accidents,  and  of  those  which  befell  our  "A" 
class  submarines,  suffered  a  comparatively  merciful  death,  as 
they  must  have  been  drowned  almost  instantaneously,  but  the 
gallant  fellows  on  board  the  ill-fated  Farfadet  must  have 
undergone  mental  and  bodily  tortures  which  one  shudders 
to  think  of. 

France  had  not  to  wait  very  long  before  she  had  again  to 
mourn  the  crew  of  the  sister  submarine  Lutin,  which   on 


SUBMARINE    DISASTERS  271 

October  16,  1906,  also  went  down  off  Bizerta.  She  left  harbour 
in  company  with  a  convoying  vessel  which  had  officers  on 
board  to  watch  her  performances.  She  made  three  successful 
dives,  but  when  a  fourth  descent  was  carried  out,  it  was  noted 
that  instead  of  the  Latin  reappearing  in  a  horizontal  position, 
she  came  to  the  surface  considerably  down  by  the  stern,  about 
20  feet  of  the  forepart  showing  above  the  water.  After 
remaining  in  this  position  for  nearly  two  minutes,  she  slowly 
disappeared,  and  did  not  rise  again.  The  behaviour  of  the 
vessel  clearly  seemed  to  indicate  the  entry  of  water  into  her 
afterpart.  Assistance  was  immediately  rendered.  Salvage 
operations  could  not  at  once  be  undertaken,  the  sea  being 
rather  rough  at  the  time,  but  the  bottom  was  dragged  and  the 
position  of  the  boat  located  in  110  feet  of  water.  A  telegram 
was  sent  to  Malta  asking  for  any  assistance  that  could  be 
rendered,  and  the  battleship  Implacable,  with  the  destroyer 
Albatross,  was  immediately  despatched  by  Lord  Charles 
Beresford  to  Bizerta.  They  brought  with  them  certain  diving 
stores  and  salvage  appliances  which  had  been  requisitioned, 
and  on  their  arrival  operations  were  immediately  resumed  with 
the  assistance  of  a  Danish  salvage  steamer  that,  was  lying  in 
the  port.  Much  difficulty  was  experienced  owing  to  the  great 
depth  of  water  in  which  the  Latin  was  lying,  but  she  was 
eventually  got  into  a  small  floating  dock.  When  the  dock 
was  pumped  out  it  was  found  that  the  vessel  had  several  leaks 
in  her  sides,  one  near  the  stern,  one  on  a  level  with  the  water- 
ballast  tanks,  one  on  the  port  side,  also  near  the  stern,  and 
another  near  the  after  rudder.  The  rudder  itself  was  bent, 
and  the  horizontal  rudders  were  in  position  for  ascent  to  the 
surface.  The  cover  of  the  forward  conning-tower  was  found 
only  half  closed,  and  it  is  believed  that  an  attempt  was  made 
to  open  the  hatch  for  the  purpose  of  escaping,  after  the  bow 
of  the  vessel  appeared  above  water,  as  soon  as  the  crew 
realised  that  she  was  foundering  ;  but  the  operation  could  not 
be  completed  in  time,  and  only  resulted  in  admitting  much 


272          THE    STORY   OF   THE    SUBMARINE 

more  water  into  the  interior.  The  Lutin  was  commanded  by 
Lieutenant  Fepoux  and  was  manned  by  a  crew  of  one  other 
officer  and  twelve  men.  All  perished. 

This  is  the  last  serious  catastrophe  that  has  so  far  over- 
taken a  submarine  boat,  but  there  have  been  a  few  minor 
ones  that  may  just  be  mentioned  in  conclusion.  The  Gymnote, 
for  instance,  was  the  scene  of  an  explosion  of  hydrogen  gas 
on  October  15,  1905,  as  she  was  lying  on  a  barge  in  the 
Mourillon  Arsenal.  Two  petty  officers  who  were  working  on 
board  were  seriously  burnt,  several  of  the  accumulators  were 
destroyed,  and  the  fore-hatch  blown  up.  Otherwise  the  old 
submarine — the  doyen  of  the  French  under-water  flotilla — 
escaped  injury. 

Then  again,  early  in  1906,  the  French  submersible  Bonite 
was  only  saved  from  destruction  by  the  presence  of  mind  of 
her  commander,  Lieutenant  Maurras,  during  some  mano3uvres 
in  which  she  was  taking  part.  She  had  just  made  a  success- 
ful attack  on  the  armourclad  Jena,  and  dived  again  to  pass 
under  the  rest  of  the  squadron  and  torpedo  a  ship  at  the 
rear  of  the  column  in  which  it  was  moving.  While  she 
was  under  water  the  battleships  altered  course,  and  when 
she  came  again  to  the  surface  she  found  herself  close  to 
the  flagship,  the  battleship  Suffren.  A  collision  was  unavoid- 
able, and  the  little  submarine  would  have  been  utterly  smashed 
against  the  thick  armour-belt  of  the  ironclad  had  not  her 
commander,  with  commendable  presence  of  mind,  given  the 
order  to  dive  at  once.  He  thought  that  scraping  under  the 
big  leviathan  he  would  stand  a  better  chance  of  escape  than 
running  right  into  her  belt.  His  pluck  and  resource  brought 
their  reward.  Though  bumping  the  Suffren  so  heavily  that 
his  crew  were  thrown  down  and  his  boat  damaged,  he  got  past 
her,  and,  letting  go  his  heavy  lead  emergency-weights,  came 
up  on  the  other  side.  The  Suffren  also  sustained  considerable 
damage,  and,  as  she  was  making  water,  had  to  go  into  dock  for 
repairs. 


SUBMARINE    DISASTERS  273 

A  somewhat  similar  accident  befell  the  A§  at  Plymouth 
a  very  short  time  later  whilst  she  was  carrying  out  an 
attack  on  the  Theseus.  She  was  run  into  by  the  steamer 
Coath,  which  she  had  not  seen  coming  up,  and  which  had  not 
seen  her.  There  was  a  terrible  shock,  the  periscope  was  shorn 
off,  the  conning-tower  badly  damaged,  and  the  crew  of  the 
submarine  thrown  one  upon  another.  But  Lieutenant  Eraser, 
who  was  in  command,  rose  to  the  occasion,  let  drop  his  safety- 
weights,  and  brought  her  at  once  to  the  surface. 


18 


CHAPTER   XXI 

THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  SUBMARINE 
CONCLUSION 


275 


CHAPTER   XXI 

THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  SUBMARINE 
CONCLUSION 

Can  Submarines  Fight  Each  Other  ? — Submarines  versus  Mines — 
Disabilities  of  the  Submarine — Her  "  blindness  "  Under  Water — 
Periscopes,  Omniscopes,  Optical  Tubes,  etc. — Captain  Mahan's 
Opinion  on  the  Submarine — How  can  Submarines  be  Attacked  ? 
— Experiments  at  Portsmouth — Motor  Boat  to  "  run  down  " 
Submarines — What  has  the  Automobile  Torpedo  done  as  yet  ? — 
The  Submarine  an  Untried  Weapon — Future  of  Working 
and  Passenger  Submarines — Conclusion. 

HAVING  now — necessarily  in  a  more  or  less  sketchy  manner — 
traced  the  evolution  of  the  submarine  from  the  earliest 
conceptions  of  under-water  attack  down  to  the  perfected 
submarine  and  submersible  torpedo-boats  which  are  being 
yearly  added  to  the  principal  navies  of  the  world,  it  is 
perhaps  fitting  that  in  conclusion  we  should  endeavour  to 
formulate  some  opinion  as  to  the  future  of  this  recently 
approved  method  of  modern  sea  warfare. 

The  French,  as  we  have  seen,  have  for  many  years  made 
up  their  minds  that  a  very  great  future  lies  before  the  sub- 
marine. We  ourselves,  after  spending  the  best  part  of  a 
century  in  "  crabbing "  the  idea  of  submarine  navigation 
as  a  method  of  naval  attack,  have  now  taken  it  up  more  or 
less  enthusiastically.  When  the  alleged  successes  of  the 
French  submarines  produced  in  this  country  something  like 
an  agitation  for  the  provision  of  similar  craft,  Mr.  Goschen 
aptly  remarked  in  Parliament  that  "  We  cannot  fight  sub- 
marines with  other  submarines." 

277 


278  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

This  view  was  supported  by  a  good  many  more  or  less 
expert  critics,  though  one,  a  Russian  signing  himself  "X," 
chose  to  take  an  opposite  view.  This  is  what  he  says  : l  "It 
is  said,  '  Submarines  cannot  fight  each  other.'  It  is  not  true  ; 
they  can  and  they  will.  That  they  are  blind  is  nothing. 
Suppose  a  great  hall  quite  dark,  and  in  it  twelve  men  in  two 
parties  hostile  to  each  other.  They  attack  and  defend  with 
such  weapons  as  they  have.  Friend  or  foe  cannot  be  dis- 
tinguished, but  will  not  each  side  have  a  password  ?  And 
so  I  see  in  the  future  the  fight  of  the  submarines.  Each 
may  be  fitted  with  some  attachment  so  that,  meeting  another, 
it  may  seize  and  hold  it — whether  by  electricity  affecting 
the  engines  of  the  one  held  or  by  grappling  claws,  like  many 
fish  have,  it  matters  not.  The  one  that  seizes  makes  signals 
to  the  seized  by  the  Morse  code,  tapping  the  hull.  If  the 
seized  is  a  friend,  the  proper  answer — the  countersign — will 
be  given ;  if  an  enemy,  it  cannot  be  given.  In  the  one  case 
the  seized  is  released ;  in  the  other,  it  is  held  and  made  prisoner, 
or  else  destroyed  if  means  exist." 

This  fantastic  glimpse  into  the  future  bears  with  it  its  own 
refutation ;  the  whole  idea  in  the  writer's  mind  seems  to  be 
to  suggest  a  possibility  and  put  it  forward  as  a  probability. 
There  is  nothing  in  his  theory  to  show  that  submarines 
are  the  best  weapons  with  which  to  tackle  other  submarines. 
If  one  of  the  hostile  parties  in  his  parable  of  the  fight  in  the 
dark  hall  were  outside  at  the  beginning,  is  it  not  likely  that 
they  would  find  a  better  means  of  disposing  of  their  six 
opponents  than  by  putting  themselves  on  an  equality 
with  them  in  their  blindness  ?  Still,  whatever  our  naval 
authorities  really  thought  at  the  time,  they  bought  five 
submarines,  experimented  with  them,  and  have  since 
continued  to  experiment  and  construct  boat  after  boat 
until  we  have  now  quite  a  numerous  flotilla  of  them  and 
a  great  many  others  building  or  in  contemplation.  So 
1  Vide  "  Fighting  Ships,  1906-7."  F.  T.  Jane. 


THE    FUTUKE    OF    THE    SUBMARINE         279 

that  there  is  no  doubt  that  they  have  formed  the  opinion 
that  submarines  have  their  uses,  though  probably  for  other 
purposes  than  to  fight  other  submarines.  If  any  further 
proof  is  needed  as  to  their  attitude  it  is  to  be  found  in  the 
almost  total  abandonment  of  the  system  of  submarine  mining, 
on  which  till  recently  we  relied  to  protect  our  ports  from  an 
enemy's  ships,  and  the  suspension  of  the  construction  of  the 
Brennan  torpedo,  which  at  some  of  them  formed  a  valuable 
adjunct  to  the  mine  defence.  It  is  evident  that  they  are 
of  opinion  that  the  perfected  submarine  is  capable  of  ad- 
vantageously replacing  them,  and  the  "  Mine  Layers,"  ships 
recently  fitted  for  strewing  mines,  may,  of  course,  be  also 
destined  for  this  duty. 

The  mine  has  often  demonstrated  its  efficiency  in  naval 
warfare,  and  never  more  than  in  the  recent  naval  campaign 
between  Russia  and  Japan,  in  which,  by  the  way,  the  torpedo 
proved  far  less  dangerous  than  used  to  be  imagined,  while, 
so  far  as  is  generally  known,  the  submarine  was  not  tried 
at  all,  though  both  sides  had  such  boats  at  their  disposal. 

As  regards  the  latter,  despite  all  the  attempts  which, 
as  we  have  seen,  have  been  made  to  use  it  in  warfare,  it  is 
an  unproved  weapon,  for  no  submarine  acting  as  such — that 
is  to  say,  in  a  submerged  position — has  ever  damaged  an 
enemy's  ship.  The  David  that  sank  the  Hvusatonic  and 
went  down  with  her,  attacked  as  a  surface  boat :  the  crew 
refused  to  have  the  hatches  closed.  Spain  and  the  United 
States  had  a  boat  or  two  intended  to  attack  under  water 
when  they  went  to  war  about  Cuba,  but  neither  belligerent 
attempted  to  use  them  either  above  or  below  water.  The  fact 
is  that  despite  the  numerous  improvements  due  to  the  advance 
of  scientific  discovery,  which  have  removed  a  very  large 
number  of  the  disabilities  which  formerly  beset  submarine 
navigation,  there  still  remain  two  very  serious  ones  :  first 
the  submarine's  blindness  when  under  water,  and  secondly 
its  slow  speed.  Even  at  the  surface  it  is  a  snail  as  compared 


280  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

to  other  craft ;  while  totally  submerged  it  is  very  much  worse. 
An  attempt,  and,  under  favourable  circumstances,  a  partially 
successful  one,  has  been  made  to  get  over  the  "  blindness  " 
by  the  use  of  "  Periscopes,"  "  Omniscopes,"  Optical  Tubes, 
"  Cleptoscopes,"  and  "  Hydroscopes,"  which  are  all  varieties 
of  practically  the  same  thing,  that  is  to  say,  a  series  of  telescopic 
tubes  fitted  with  mirrors  at  the  upper  end  which  can  be  pushed 
up  above  water,  and  which,  after  the  manner  of  the  camera 
obscura,  reflect  down  images  of  objects  on  the  surface  of  the 
sea  to  a  suitable  screen  or  eye-piece  in  the  conning-tower 
of  the  submarine.  There  are  varieties  of  mirrors  and  in 
the  modes  in  which  the  images  they  reflect  are  transmitted 
to  the  eye  of  the  steersmen  under  water,  but  the  main  principle 
is  the  same,  though  some  produce  a  diminutive  panorama 
which  has  to  be  magnified,  and  others  that,  while  reflecting 
a  larger  image,  can  only  deal  with  a  small  portion  of  the  horizon 
at  once,  so  that  the  upper  mirror  has  to  be  continually  revolved. 
Excellent  as  these  contrivances  may  be,  they  cannot  give 
the  freedom  of  sight  and  facility  for  judging  distance  that 
are  the  attributes  of  direct  vision,  and  it  is  obvious  that  in 
rough  weather  they  would  be  all  but  useless  on  account  of 
the  limitation  of  their  horizon  by  the  waves  and  the  continual 
incrustation  of  salt  upon  the  surfaces  of  their  upper  reflectors. 
It  must  be  remembered,  too,  that,  small  as  is  the  object  pre- 
sented by  the  upper  end  of  a  periscope,  it  still  stands  a  chance 
of  being  detected  by  the  vigilant  eyes  of  the  enemy's  look- 
outs ;  and  although  the  submarine  may  escape  damage  by  gun- 
fire or  by  other  means  of  attack,  it  will  be  quite  possible  for 
her  quarry  to  quickly  put  a  very  considerable  distance  between 
them  if  under  way,  so  very  much  faster  would  she  be. 

It  is  doubtless  the  consideration  of  these  facts  that  induced 
the  well-known  critic  Captain  Mahan,  of  the  United  States 
Navy,  to  write,  "  I  should  be  interested  to  see  some  demon- 
stration that  the  submarine  boat  will  not  find  a  practically 
insuperable  difficulty  in  discerning  her  prey — in  seeking  it, 


THE    FUTUKE    OF    THE    SUBMAKINE         281 

I  should  rather  say." l  The  word  "  seeking "  is  just  the 
right  one,  for  it  not  only  refers  to  the  difficulty  the  submarine 
has  in  seeing,  but  also  to  her  second  disability,  that  slowness 
which  renders  it  difficult  for  her  to  get  at  the  enemy.  As 
long  ago  as  the  time  of  Fulton,  when  oars  and  sails  were  the 
motive  powers  afloat,  slow  speed  was  one  of  the  objections 
raised  to  his  big  submarine  the  Mute.  And  in  these  days 
of  30-knot  destroyers,  the  submarine,  despite  her  petrol  and 
electrical  engines,  is  proportionately  still  farther  behind  in 
the  matter  of  speed.  This,  combined  with  the  time  certain 
types  of  submarines  take  to  disappear  from  the  surface,  is 
their  most  vulnerable  point,  or  rather  that  which  gives  their 
enemies  their  best  chance  of  destroying  them.  A  slow-diving 
boat — though  these  are  becoming  rare,  thanks  to  recent 
improvements — having  come  up  for  observation  may  be 
"  spotted  "  by  a  destroyer  on  the  look-out,  and  even  if  at 
several  hundreds  of  yards  distance  may  be  attacked  by  a 
spar -torpedo  before  she  is  deep  enough  down  to  be  safe, 
so  swiftly  can  her  opponent  tear  through  the  water  compared 
to  herself.  If  she  is  merely  located  by  a  peep  at  her 
periscope,  almost  immediately  withdrawn,  it  is  quite  on 
the  cards  that  a  destroyer  may  make  for  the  spot  so  quickly 
that  she  may  be  able  to  get  at  her  in  the  same  way.  At 
any  rate,  this  is  one  of  the  methods  of  dealing  with  sub- 
marines that  have  been  experimented  with  and  tried,  it 
is  said,  with  a  considerable  amount  of  success.  Some  of 
these  were  made  a  few  years  ago  at  Portsmouth,  a  barrel 
representing  a  submarine  being  sunk  10  feet  below  the  surface 
and  attacked  by  the  destroyer  Starfish,  which  was  specially 
equipped  for  the  purpose.  She  was  strengthened  on  the 
starboard  bow  to  take  the  weight  of  a  forty-foot  spar,  on  the 
outer  end  of  which  was  fastened  a  charge  of  32  pounds  of 
guncotton,  and  a  crutch  in  which  the  spar  worked.  As  the 
Starfish  neared  her  target  the  spar  was  run  out  and  the  end 
1  In  "  Fighting  Ships,  1901."  F.  T.  Jane. 


282  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

carrying  the  explosive  charge  dropped  into  the  water  as  she 
passed  it.  As  it  swung  aft  it  was  fired  by  electrical  contact, 
blowing  the  barrel  to  pieces.  As  for  the  destroyer,  the  speed 
at  which  she  was  travelling  carried  her  clear  of  the  effects 
of  the  explosion.  Had  her  target  been  a  real  submarine 
there  is  little  doubt  that  a  hole  would  have  been  blown  in 
her  which  would  have  been  quite  enough  to  sink  her.  As 
a  method  of  locating  a  submarine  which  does  not  give  herself 
away  by  coming  to  the  surface,  or  even  by  using  her  periscope, 
the  French  advocate  the  employment  of  captive  balloons, 
or  at  any  rate  they  did  do  so  a  few  years  ago.  The  theory 
is  that  from  the  car  of  a  balloon  quite  a  large  area  of  water 
is  visible  to  a  considerable  depth  which  is  invisible  to  observers 
on  board  a  ship  because  their  line  of  sight  strikes  the  surface 
of  the  water  at  such  a  flat  angle  that  further  vision  is  arrested. 
But  an  attendant  balloon  might  very  well  be  able,  under 
favourable  circumstances,  to  detect  the  stealthy  advance 
of  a  submarine  assailant  and  telephone  her  whereabouts 
to  the  menaced  ship. 

Besides  the  spar-torpedo,  various  other  methods  have 
been  advocated  and  experimented  with  for  coping  with  the 
submarine.  The  quick-firing  gun  in  the  hands  of  expert 
gunners  may  very  likely  be  able  to  give  a  good  account  of 
a  submarine  if  caught  at  or  close  to  the  surface,  and  it  is 
possible  that  fairly  big  charges  of  high  explosive  thrown  in 
her  path  with  special  fuses  set  to  explode  on  reaching  a  certain 
depth  might  destroy  an  under- water  boat.  "  The  radius  of 
such  an  explosion  must  be  great  under  water,"  says  a  French 
writer.1  "It  is  a  lesson  taught  by  the  English  fish  poacher, 
who  thus  kills  fish  by  shock  of  explosive.2  It  will  kill  sub- 
marines. It  is  the  fortune  of  war."  The  officers  in  charge 

1  "  La  VeritS,"  in  "  Fighting  Ships,  1901."     F.  T.  Jane. 

2  This  form  of  fishing  is  not  confined  to  the  English  poacher. 
Twenty  years  ago  it  had  been  adopted  by  the  natives  of  the  Solomon 
Islands. 


A    DESTROYER    ATTACKING    A    SUBMARINE    WITH    A    SPAR-TORPEDO, 
p.  282] 


THE    FUTURE    OF    THE    SUBMARINE          283 

of  the  Starfish  experiments  reckoned  that  their  32-pound 
case  of  guncotton  would  have  smashed  any  submarine  within 
a  radius  of  60  feet.  It  certainly  would  seem  that  a  submarine 
completely  surrounded  by  wat  r  which  is  exerting  pressure 
on  her  from  every  direction,  and  with  her  comparatively 
slight  structure  and  low  buoyancy,  ought  to  be  much  more 
vulnerable  to  a  given  charge  of  explosive  than  an  above- 
water  ship.  That  which  would  only  damage  the  latter 
ought  to  crumple  the  former  up.  But  it  is  possible  that 
this  theory  is  wrong,  for,  if  we  may  believe  the  following,  the 
French  have  already  partially  demonstrated  the  conclusion 
drawn  from  the  Starfish  experiments  to  be  a  fallacy.  "  Some 
sheep  were  placed  in  the  Naiade  (a  submarine  of  the  Perle 
class),  and  torpedoes  exploded  at  from  98  to  150  feet  distant : 
the  sheep  were  uninjured  and  the  vessel  suffered  no  damage." 
But  we  do  not  know  the  weight  of  the  explosive  used,  and 
there  is  a  considerable  difference  between  98  feet  and  60  feet. 
Still,  we  have  not  altogether  pinned  our  faith  to  this  method 
of  settling  with  submarines.  Another  dodge  that  has  been 
tried  is  to  catch  them  in  a  net  hung  between  a  couple  of 
destroyers  steaming  abreast ;  and,  supposing  the  submarine 
to  have  been  successfully  located,  it  seems  possible  that  she 
would  find  this  method  of  attack  very  embarrassing,  to  say 
the  least  of  it. 

If  proved  to  be  practicable,  the  little  automatic  submarine 
torpedo  controlled  by  "  wireless "  telegraphy,  invented  by 
Mr.  Gardner  of  London  in  1902,  ought  to  be  still  more  effective. 
This  weapon,  like  the  Orling- Armstrong  torpedo,  is  claimed 
by  its  inventor  to  be  so  completely  under  control  of  the 
operator  on  board  the  ship  which  carries  it  that  on  being 
launched  and  its  propelling  machinery  started,  it  can  be 
made  to  literally  hunt  down  the  submarine,  being  so  much 
faster  in  speed.  As  it  carries  a  couple  of  hundred  pounds 
of  guncotton,  which  can  be  exploded  by  the  "  wireless " 
waves,  it  is  practically  sure  to  annihilate  the  under-water 


284  THE    STORY    OF    THE    SUBMARINE 

enemy  if  it  gets  anywhere  near  it.  The  weak  point  about 
this  invention  seems  to  be  the  omission  of  the  inventor  to 
let  us  know  how  the  operator  can  follow  the  course  of  the 
submarine  after  she  has  dived.  The  advent  of  the  motor- 
boat  has  suggested  to  an  American  ex-naval  officer  its  ap- 
plicability as  a  submarine-destroyer.  His  patent  motor- 
boat  is  to  be  a  light,  strongly  built  craft  small  enough  to  be 
carried  by  any  man-of-war  of  ordinary  size,  and  capable 
of  travelling  at  21  knots  an  hour — not  an  exceptional  speed 
as  above- water  craft  go,  but  possibly  sufficient  for  the  purpose 
intended.  Like  the  Starfish,  she  is  intended  to  run  down 
a  submarine  as  soon  as  its  presence  is  known  or  suspected, 
but  instead  of  attacking  it  with  a  spar-torpedo  she  discharges 
a  special  kind  of  torpedo  through  a  vertical  tube  straight 
down  upon  the  slower  moving  enemy.  This  certainly  seems 
a  more  practical  method  than  Mr.  Gardner's.  But  in  this, 
as  in  every  other  case,  you  must  "  first  find  your  submarine." 
Its  invisibility  is  its  strongest  card.  And  despite  the  two 
capital  shortcomings  to  which  attention  has  been  drawn, 
there  is  no  doubt  that  in  a  future  war  between  nations  who 
have  really  made  a  study  of  under-water  attack,  its  moral 
effect  will  probably  be  at  least  as  formidable  as  any  material 
damage  it  may  do,  and  possibly  may  alone  be  sufficient  to 
influence  the  course  of  the  campaign.  But  all  this  depends 
not  on  the  submarine  alone,  but  on  the  automobile  torpedo, 
for  unless  this,  its  only  weapon,  is  an  efficient  one,  it  is  powerless. 
The  Whitehead  torpedo  has  now  been  invented  a  great 
number  of  years  and  has  been  continually  improved  in  range 
accuracy  and  general  efficiency,  yet  what  has  it  done  to 
justify  the  prophecies  which  have  again  and  again  been 
made  as  to  its  terrible  destructiveness  and  far-reaching 
effect  on  naval  tactics  and  strategy  ?  Did  it  produce  any 
very  striking  results  in  the  Spanish-American  War,  or  in 
the  Chino-Japanese  War,  or,  lastly,  in  the  recent  war  between 
Russia  and  Japan  ?  "  Was  it  generally  accepted  before  the 


THE    FUTURE    OF    THE    SUBMARINE         285 

war,"  writes  a  distinguished  naval  critic,1  "  that  the  White- 
head  torpedo  could  do  so  little  damage  to  a  battleship  that 
she  could  be  easily  repaired  ?  That  a  port  could  be  blockaded 
in  spite  of  the  presence  of  torpedo-boats  inside  it  ?  ...  And 
is  not  the  Whitehead  torpedo  decreasing  in  value  ?  Neither 
is  the  untried  submarine  likely  to  prove  more  effective  than 
the  torpedo  boat  and  destroyer.  Nothing  is  more  to  be 
deprecated  than  the  attempt  that  has  been  made  to  enhance 
unduly  its  importance  by  playing  on  the  credulity  of  the  public, 
to  whom  the  unknown  is  always  terrible.  The  new  instrument 
of  war  has,  no  doubt,  a  value,  but  that  it  is  anything  more 
than  an  auxiliary  with  limited  and  special  uses  it  is  difficult 
to  believe." 

Here  we  may  finally  leave  the  militant  submarine,  merely 
observing  in  conclusion  that  it  is  evident  that  its  future 
depends  in  a  great  measure  on  that  of  the  automobile  tor- 
pedo. If  this,  as  it  promises  to  do,  grows  bigger  in  order  to 
carry  a  heavier  and  more  effective  explosive  charge,  the 
submarine  must  also  be  increased  in  size  to  carry  the 
heavier  and  larger  torpedoes.  The  advent  of  very  much 
larger  submarine  boats  will  open  up  a  whole  host  of  other 
questions  in  connection  with  their  use.  It  does  not  seem 
altogether  impossible  that  the  submarine  proper  may  one 
day  be  supplanted  by  the  semi-submersible  torpedo-boat. 
Such  a  vessel,  having  its  conning-tower  and  a  portion  of  its 
upper  surface  sufficiently  armoured  to  defy  projectiles  of 
moderate  size,  would  be  a  formidable  assailant,  as  it  would 
travel  faster  than  a  submarine  proper  and  would  not,  like 
the  latter,  suffer  from  "  blindness." 

As  for  submarine  diving  and  working  boats,  they  seem 
likely  to  prove  much  superior  to  the  diving-bell,  and  they 
have  already  been  so  far  perfected  that  we  may  look  to  see 
them  frequently  and  effectively  employed  on  under- water 
undertakings,  such  as  the  building  of  breakwaters,  the  blowing 
1  "Naval  Policy,"  by  "Barfleur." 


286 


THE    STOKY   OF    THE    SUBMAKINE 


up  of  wrecks,  the  search  for  sunken  treasure,  and  other  work 
of  a  similar  kind. 

The  third  class  of  submarines,  those  intended  for  passenger 
transport,  will  probably  never  exist,  save  in  the  imaginations 
of  their  ingenious  and  sanguine  designers.  There  are  as  yet 
no  indications  that  the  travellers  of  the  immediate  future 
are  likely  to  prefer  the  sombre  depths  of  the  ocean  to  the 


A   TRANSATLANTIC   SUBMARINE    LINER  IN   THE    YEAR    —  ? 

Adapted  from  a  picture  in  the  Illustrated  Mail. 

brightness  and  fresh  air  of  its  upper  surface  ;  or  that  the 
submarine,  with  its  hermetically  sealed  and  stuffy  interior, 
slowly  boring  along  beneath  the  waves,  will  hold  more 
attractions  for  them  than  the  swift  and  luxuriously  equipped 
liner  rushing  forward  under  the  boundless  canopy  of  heaven 
at  the  full  speed  of  her  mighty  turbine  engines. 

Sea-sickness  doubtless  has  its  terrors,  but  even  they,  in 
most  people's  opinion,  would  be  endurable  when  compared 
with  the  alternative  of  a  prolonged  confinement  in  a  sub- 
aquatic  iron  dungeon. 


APPENDIX  I 

CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  THE  PRINCIPAL  SUBMARINE  AND 
SEMI-SUBMARINE  VESSELS  EITHER  BUILT  OR  PROPOSED 
FROM  THE  EARLIEST  TIMES  TO  A.D.  1900  INCLUSIVE. 


287 


APPENDIX    I 

CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  THE  PRINCIPAL  SUBMARINE 
AND  SEMI-SUBMARINE  VESSELS  EITHER  BUILT  OR 
PROPOSED  FROM  THE  EARLIEST  TIMES  TO  A.D  1900 
INCLUSIVE. 


REFERENCES  TO  ABBREVIATIONS 

Propulsion 
O  means  Oars. 
P        „       Paddle-wheels. 
S        „       Screw  propeller. 
SI        „       Sails. 

W       „      Wheels  moving  on  sea- 
floor. 
Hy     „       Hydraulic  propulsion. 

Motive  Power 
H  means  Hand  power. 
S         „       Steam. 
Ex      „       Explosives. 
E        „       Electric. 
CA     „       Carbonic  Acid. 
F        „       Foot-power  —  pro- 
pellers, etc.,  worked  by  pedals. 

NOTE. — The  table  shows  the  principal  designs  for  Submarines 
that  have  from  time  to  time  been  brought  forward  up  to  the  end 
of  1900,  from  which  date  the  era  of  the  regular  construction  of  such 
vessels  for  naval  purposes  may  be  said  to  have  commenced.  Those 
which  have  been  actually  constructed  are  denoted  by  the  name  of 
their  Inventor  being  printed  in  CAPITAL  LETTERS.  The  re^ 
mainder  are  merely  designs  and  proposals,  some  carefully  and 
scientifically  worked  out,  but  most  no  more  than  suggestions  which 
are  sometimes  illustrated  by  sketch  plans.  There  are  doubtless 
many  more  of  these  which  could  be  found  if  any  one  had  the  time 
and  opportunity  of  wading  through  the  patents  lists  of  every 
civilised  country,  but  those  noted  are  the  ones  which,  for  one  reason 
or  another,  appear  to  be  the  most  deserving  of  mention. 

289  19 


G  means 

Gas. 

P 

Petrol. 

A 

Compressed  Air. 

Shape 

B  means 

Boat-shaped. 

F        „ 

Fish. 

R 

Rectangular. 

S        „ 

Ship  shaped. 

Bl       „ 

Barrel  shaped. 

P 

Porpoise     „ 

Sp      „ 

Spherical    ,, 

c 

Cigar 

Cy'   „ 

Cylindrical  shaped. 

L 

Lemon               „ 

0        „ 

Ovoid                 „ 

290 


APPENDIX  I 


Date. 

Inventor. 

Propul- 
sion. 

Motive 
Power. 

Shape. 

Remarks. 

1190? 

V.  p.  6,  ch.  i. 

1472 

Fr.  Valturius.  V.  p.  16,ch.i.,note. 

1505 

Gruntland  Pirates   .  . 

" 

"t[ 

)| 

Fr.    Olaus   Magnus.     V.   p.    15,' 

ch.  i. 

1559 

Venetians 

A  diving-boat.     V.  p.  16,  ch.  i.  ; 

p.  24,  ch.  ii.,  note. 

1578 

W.  Bourne 

,  , 

First  British  design.     V.    p.  20, 

ch.  ii. 

1596 

Napier  of  Merchiston 

V.  p.  23,  ch.  ii. 

1605 

M.  Pegelius  .. 

V.  p.  23,  ch.  ii. 

1620 

VAN  DREBBEL    .. 

o 

H 

B? 

V.  p.  25,  ch.  ii. 

1626 

UNKNOWN 

Used  at  Isle  of  Rhe.  F.p.27,ch.ii. 

(possibly  Van  Drebbel) 

1634 

Mersenne 

0 

H 

F 

V.  p.  29,  ch.  ii. 

1640 

Barrie 

Details  unknown.   V.  p.  33,  ch.  iii. 

1648 

Bishop  Wilkins 

0 

H 

An  imaginary  "  Ark."     V.  p.  33, 

ch.  iii. 

1653 

DE  SON       .. 

p 

? 

R 

Oblong    box,    pyramidal    ends. 

V.  p.  35,  ch.  iii. 

1680 
1685 

Borelli 
Ciminius 

o 

H 

•• 

V.  p.  36,  ch.  iii.  (Navis  Urinator). 
V.  p.  39,  ch.  iii. 

1688 

Doliguy 

V.  p.  39,  ch.  iii. 

1691 

Evance 

V.  p.  39,  ch.  iii. 

1692 

Papin  . 

•V  model  of  Drebbel's  boat     V  p 

25,  ch.  ii. 

1693 

Stapleton 

? 

? 

? 

"  A  machine  to  enable  a  man  to 

travel  under  water." 

1729 

STMONS 

0 

H 

B 

V.  p.  37,  ch.  iii. 

1737 

Cambon 

? 

? 

? 

"  An  engine  analogous  to  the  hull 

of  a  vessel." 

1772 

DIONIS 

o 

H 

? 

V.  p.  40,  ch.  iii. 

1773 

DAY  

S 

No  propulsion.     V.  p.  40,  ch.  iii. 

1776 

BUSHNELL 

8 

H 

V.  p.  51,  ch.  iv. 

1780 

S.  de  Valmer 

0 

H 

Bl 

V.  p.  61,  ch.  v. 

1780 

Beaugenet 

Details  unknown.    V.  p.  61,  ch.  v. 

1795 

Armand-Maiziere     .  . 

o 

S 

V 

V.  p.  61,  ch.  v. 

1796 

Castera 

0 

H 

? 

V.  p.  61,  ch.  v. 

1796 

Fabre 

Like  a  "  peach-stone."    V.  p  61, 

ch.  v. 

1798 

Martner 

o 

H 

A  "  Coffer  200  ft.  long  and  20  to 

1799 

Thilorier 

22  high.     To  carry  4000  men." 
A  small  Submarine  to  carry  4  men 

and  cost  5000  francs. 

1800 

R.  FULTON 

S1&  S 

H 

p 

The  Nautilus.     V.  p.  62,  ch.  v. 

1800 

Schoepke 

Designed  at  Frankfort.      To  be 

24  ft.  long,  10  wide,  and  carry 

12  men. 

1801 

HODGMAN 

Tried  at  Folkestone.    Details  un- 

known.     V.  p.  76,  ch.  vi. 

1801 

O'Reilly 

W 

H 

? 

Wooden  Submarine  to  be  man- 

aged by  2  men. 

180? 

£ 

W 

jj 

0 

i 

J.O  run  on  wueeis  on  sea-floor. 
Project  by  an  anonymous  cor- 

respondent     of       L'Annales, 

1809 

COUESSIN  Bros.    .. 

Sl&O 

H 

Bl 

Paris. 
V.  p.  77,  ch.  vi. 

1810 

Castera 

F 

H 

Bl 

Proposed  submarine  like  a  "  Tun 

with  conical  ends." 

1810 

D'Aubusson   La 

F 

H 

Copper  almost  in  the  form  of  an 

Feuillade 

ellipse. 

1814 

FULTON 

P 

H 

V.  p.  70,  ch.  v.     Mute. 

LIST   OF    THE    PRINCIPAL    SUBMARINES       291 


Date. 

Inventor. 

Projnr 

sion. 

Motive 
Power 

Shape 

Remark*. 

1814 

UNKNOWN 

Reported  in  Naval  Chronicle  as 

being   built  in   England.     V. 

p.  76,  ch.  vi. 

1821 

JOHNSON  .. 

S1&  O 

H 

? 

V.  p.  77,  ch.  vi. 

1822 

Montgerv 

81  &P 

H&Ex 

S 

V.  p.  237,  ch.  xviii. 

1823 

BHULDHAM 

V.  p.  79,  ch.  vi. 

1825 

D'Aubusson  La 

Feuillade.. 

S1&  0 

H 

? 

Armour-plated,  125  ft.  long,  30 

beam,  14  deep.     Propelled  by 

"  Piston  oars."     To  be  armed 

with   10  "  Colombiads." 

182C 

BoLsserolles  .  . 

O 

H 

Imitation  of  CouessinB'  boat. 

1827 

Castera 

0 

H 

P 

Had  float  and  diving  chamber. 

P.  p.  239,  ch.  xviii.    Two  other 
rather  different  boate,  1  with 

3  wheels. 

1831 

CBRVO 

Sp. 

A  hollow  wooden  ball.     V.  p.  79, 

ch.  vi. 

1832 

VILLEROI  .. 

O 

H 

Spindle-shaped.  V.  p.  79,  ch.  vi. 

1834 

PETIT 

0 

H 

c 

V.  p.  79,  ch.  vi. 

1838 

Newton 

a 

H 

L 

7.  p.  224,  ch.  xvii. 

1840 

D'Aubusson    La 

H 

S 

7G  ft.  long.     Ship  shape.     Pro- 

1846 

Feuillade 
PAYEENE    .. 

s 

H 

Or 

pelled  by  alternating  cylinders. 
Pointed  bow,  rounded  stern.     V. 

1850 

IJAUER 

B 

H 

P 

p.  79,  ch.  vi.  ;  p.  224,  ch.  xvii. 
Der  Brandtaucher.     V.  p.  80,  ch. 

vii. 

1851 

PHILIPS      .  . 

s 

H 

c 

Two  Boats.     V.  p.  80,  ch.  ri. 

1852 

LAMBERT  .  . 

O 

Submarine  worker.     No  propul- 

sion.    V.  p.  225,  ch.  xvii. 

1853 

Nasmyth 

s 

S 

Cy 

"  Floating  Mortar  "  semi-submer- 

sible.    V.  p.  210,  ch.  xvi. 

1854 

Marie-  Davy 

B 

E 

C 

First  proposal  to  use  Electricity. 

An    electrically    driven    auger 

and  propeller. 

1854 

PAYERNE 

S 

H 

C 

Boat  shape  but  with  rounded  top. 

V.  p.  225,  chap.  xvii. 

1854 

Cambrez-Bassompierre 

O 

No  details  available. 

1854 

Unknown      ,  .         .  . 

B 

H 

0 

Inventor  a  prisoner  at  Ajaccio. 

1855 

Picot-Gueraud 

? 

? 

? 

Just  the  shape  of  a  lemon. 
For  cutting  wires  of  mines. 

1855 

BAUER 

S 

P 

P 

V.  p.  88,ch.vii.(A<?  Diable  Marin.) 

1855 

Babbage 

An  elongated  diving-bell.     V.  p. 

92,  ch.  vii. 

1855 

Spiridinoff     .  . 
VILCOQ      &      DBS- 
CHAMPS 

s 

CA 
H 

Cy 

Propelled  by  pistons. 
Short  cylinder,   cylindro  conical 
bow,  coned  stern  and  big  dome 

with  leather  gauntlets.     V.  p. 

92,  ch.  vii. 

Felt    

? 

? 

? 

Proposed  to  France.     To  carry 

185G 

Deschamps 

s 

H 

8  guns. 
Much  the  same  as  former  boat 

designed  in  conjunction  with 

Vilcoq. 

1856 

SCOTT-RUSSELL  .  . 

Like  Bauer's  Diable  Marin.     V. 

p.  88,  ch.  vii. 

1856 
1857 
1857 

Althabegoity 
Conseil 
Hubault 

s 
? 

s 

? 
? 
H 

L 

L 

V.  p.  ?39,  ch.  xviii. 
Ellipsoidal  in  shape.    No  details. 
Nearly    rectangular    in    shape. 

V.  p.  242,  ch.  xviii. 

1857 

Scheltema-Beduin    .. 

PW 

? 

? 

Invented  in  Batavia. 

APPENDIX   I 


Date. 

Inventor. 

'ropul- 
sion. 

Motive 
Power. 

hape. 

Remarks. 

1859 

Masson 

S 

H 

Oy 

Carbonic-acid  engine    to  empty 

tanks. 

1859 

CONSEIL 

S 

H 

p 

Also  proposed  a  second  boat  with 

Turbine  Motor.    P.p.  92,ch.vii. 

1859 

Van  Elven 

S 

S 

?  . 

Armoured    submersible   Monitor 

fitted    with     a    "  Periscope." 

V.  p.  212,  ch.  xvi. 

1859 

MONTURIOL 

S 

S 

? 

V.  p.  94,  ch.  vii.     (Ictineo.) 

1860 

Biou  

S 

S&E 

Cy 

Two  designs,   one  propelled  by 

steam  the  other  by  electricity. 

Double  hull.     Coned  ends. 

1861 

Bauer 

S 

S? 

P 

Le   Bruleur   des   C8tes.      V.   p. 

240,  ch.  xviii. 

1861 

CONFEDERATES.. 

S 

S 

C 

The  Manassas,  semi-submersible. 

V.  p.  213,  ch.  xvi. 

1861 

BARRIENS 

0 

H 

Cy 

Original  David.     Sunk  to  avoid 

capture  by  the  Federals. 

1862 

VILLEROI 

o 

H 

Cy 

Pointed    bow,     rounded    stern. 

V.  p.  98,  ch.  viii. 

1862 

Legrand 

S 

S 

Submersible  monitor.     V.  p.  218, 

ch.  xvi. 

1863 

ALSTITT 

S 

S&E 

S 

V.  p.  101,  ch.  viii. 

1863 

CONFEDERATES 

S 

H 

Cy 

V.  p.  102,  ch.  viii. 

1863 

BOURGEOIS  &BRUN 

S 

A 

C 

The  Plongeur.    V.  p.  99,  ch.  viii. 

1864 

HUNLET 

S 

H 

Cy 

Boat  that  sank  the  Housatonic. 

V.  p.  105,  ch.  ix. 

1864 

WOOD 

S 

S 

Semi-submersible.    V.  p.  114,  ch. 

ix.;  p.  216,  ch.  xvi.  ("The  Strom- 

boli.) 

1864 

?          

S 

S 

Keo-Kuk,  semi-submersible  moni- 

tor.   V.  p.  114,  ch.  ix.  ;  p.  215, 

ch.  xvi. 

1865 

WOOD  &  LAY 

S 

S 

.  . 

Spuyen-Duivel,semi-s\ibmersib\e, 

F.p.H4,ch.  ix.  ;  p.  216,  ch.  xvi. 

1865 

NILLUS 

S 

S 

C 

Semi-submarine    with    speed    of 

15  knots. 

1866 

Merriam 

S 

H 

C 

V.  p.  226,  ch.  xvii. 

1866 

RAEBER      .. 

S 

H 

C 

Almost  identical  with  Alerriam's. 

V.  p.  226,  ch.  xvii. 

1866 

FLACH 

S 

H 

Cy 

V.  p.  115,  ch.  ix. 

1866 

HALSTEAD 

S 

H 

P 

Not  actually  built  till  1872.     V. 

p.  121,  ch.  x.     The  Intelligent 

Whale. 

1867 
1868 

Hallet 
ALEXANDROWSKI 

8 

A 

Said  to  be  very  like  Dr.  Payerne's. 
V.  p.  117,  chap.  ix. 

1869 

Vogel 

S 

S 

8 

V.  p.  218,  ch.  xvi. 

1869 

Barbour 

S 

CA 

P 

Propelled  by  carbonic-acid  gas  or 

by  ammonia. 

1869 

Lacomme      .  . 

S 

A 

C 

To  run  on  lines  at  the  bottom  of 

the  sea.     A  kind  of  Submarine 

Railway. 

1870 

Constantin 

S 

Hor  A 

Like  a  big  kettle  with  projecting 

cylinders  fore  and  aft  to  alter 

displacement. 

1873 

Smith 

S 

E 

Cy 

Motive  power  drawn  from  shore 

by  wires. 

1873 

PORTER 

S 

S 

Semi-submersible.     V.  p.  218,  ch. 

xvi. 

1874 

Roy    

S 

To  be  driven  by  a  kind  of  breech- 

loading  gun. 

1874 

Delavaque     .  . 

S 

? 

C 

Horizontal  screws  underneath  for 

submersion.    V.  p.  252,  ch.  xix. 

LIST    OF    THE    PKINCIPAL    SUBMARINES       293 


Date. 

Inventor. 

Propul- 
sion. 

Motive 
Power. 

Shape. 

Remarks. 

1875 

HOLLAND  I 

S 

F 

C 

V.  p.  123,  ch.  x. 

1876 

Tomassi 

S 

S 

c 

Semi-submersible.    V.  p.  251,  ch. 

TIT 

1877 

Mortensen 

S 

A 

C 

First  proposal  to  use  bow  Tor- 
pedo Tube. 

1877 

HOLLAND  H 

S 

G 

c 

V.  p.  125,  ch.  x. 

1877 
1877 

DRZEWIECKI  I    .  . 
Jones 

S 

F 

V.  p.  124,  ch.  x.  The  Podascophe. 
Submarine  torpedo-boat.    Xo  de- 

tails.     Model  tested  at  Liver- 

pool. 

1877 

Olivier 

•• 

G 

c 

Propelled  by  gas  from  explosive 
like  a  rocket.     Horizontal  fins. 

1877 

Thompson 

S 

Semi-submersible  design  for  tur- 

ret ship. 

1878 

Watson  &  Woodhouse 

S 

Submersible  ironclad  with  guns. 

1878 

Surman 

S 

)) 

b 

Suspended  from  air-bag  and  with 

glass      observation     chamber 

which  could  be  floated  up  to 

the  surface. 

1878 

GARRET  I. 

S 

H 

0 

V.  p.  122,  ch.  x. 

1879 

GARRET  n. 

S 

S 

c 

The  Resurgam.    V.  p.  124,  ch.  x. 

1879 

DRZEWIECKI  H  .  . 

S 

F 

p 

V.  p.  124,  ch.  x. 

1880 

Lagane 

S 

S 

S 

V.  p.  220,  ch.  xvi. 

1880 

Lambert  &  Ivernau  .  . 

S 

A 

Cy 

Coned  ends. 

1880 

Berkeley  &  HotchMss 

S 

S 

C 

Semi-submersible.     V.  p.  219,  ch. 

xvi. 

1881 

HOLLAND  m. 

S 

F 

P 

V.  p.  125,  ch.  x. 

1881 

ALEXANDROWSKI 

n. 

S 

A  failure.     V.  p.  135,  ch.  ri. 

1881 

BRITISH 

S 

S 

C 

The  Polyphemus.     V.  p.  214,  ch. 

ADMIRALTY 

xvi. 

1881 

NORDENFELDT   I. 

S 

S 

c 

V.  p.  126,  ch.  x. 

1881 

Woodhouse 

S&P 

A 

Cy 

Cylindrical     with     coned     bow. 

Superstructure       with       gun, 

diving-bell.    Paddles  and  screw 

propeller. 

1881 

Genoud 

S 

G 

Gas  from  iron  scraps  and  sul- 

phuric acid. 

1881 

Todorasco 

A  Roumanian  inventor.     Details 

not  available. 

1881 

DRZEWIECKI    LTI 

S 

F 

P 

Much  the  same  as  No.  2,  but  with 

only  one  screw.   V.  p.l35,ch.xi. 

1883 

Davies 

S 

A 

C 

The  Demon.    Carried  torpedo  on 

its  back. 

1883 

Telescheff 

Design  for  hull  only. 

1884 

Blakesley 

8 

8 

C 

Much  finer  aft  than  forward. 

1884 

DRZEWIECKI     IV 

S 

E 

P 

V.  p.  135,  ch.  xi. 

1884 

TUCK 

S 

S 

P 

V.  p.  137,  ch.xi.  The  Peacemaker. 

1884 

Degener 

Bow  cruciform.     Ran  on  wheels. 

1884 

CAMPBELL  &  ASH 

8 

• 

0 

The  Nautilus.     V.  p.  136,  ch.  xi. 

1884 

Jacquemin 

S 

? 

C 

High  conning-tower.     V.  p.  252, 

ch.  xix. 

1884 

HOLLAND  IV        .  . 

S 

G 

P 

V.  p.  139,  ch.  xi. 

1885 

Boucher 

o 

.  . 

P 

Telescopes,    buffers,  guns,    and 

every  possible  sort   of   weird 

contraption.     A  chimera. 

1885 

Morhard 

S 

Salvage  boat  on  rollers,  air-tubes 

with  floats. 

1885 

Welch 

S 

C 

A    series    of    airtight    cylinders 

strung  on  long  tube  ending  in 

cones. 

294 


APPENDIX  I 


Date 

Inventor. 

Propul 
sion. 

Motive 
Tower 

Shape 

Remarks, 

1885 

WADDINGTON 

S 

E 

C 

The  Porpoise.     V.  p.  141,  ch.  si. 

1885 

HOLLAND  V 

V.  p.  139,  ch.  xi. 

1885 

TUCK 

S 

8 

P" 

V.  p.  138,  ch.  xi. 

1885 

Foure  &  Mate 

S 

E 

? 

To  go  14  knots  below  and  18 

above  water. 

1885 

Flais  

S 

G 

Cy 

Projecting  bomb  in  cylinder  be- 

low hull. 

1885 

D'Allest 

S 

P 

C 

Cigar-shaped  with  narrow   com- 

partment   below    for    water- 

tanks. 

1885 

GOUBET  I 

S 

E 

P 

V.  p.  140,  ch.  xi. 

1886 

Toureau 

Hy 

C 

The      "  Hyponean."     Hydraulic 

propulsion. 

1886 

Watkins 

S 

Cy 

Telescopic  ends.     Motive  power 

not  decided. 

1886 

Brin  &  Chapman 

S 

Cy 

Propelled  by  any  suitable  engine. 

1886 

Lecaudy 

S 

E 

p 

Model  tried  at  Caen. 

1886 

Burgal 

The  Sombreur  —  80  tons,  40  ft.  long. 

1886 

Cazaux 

S 

E 

C 

6  tons.    Helmet-shaped  conning- 

tower. 

1887 

NORDENFELDT  II 

S 

S 

C 

V.  p.  127,  ch.  x. 

1887 

Shepherd 

S 

P 

p 

Very  much  like  the  Peacemaker. 

1887 

PERAL 

S 

E 

C 

V.  p.  144,  ch.  xi. 

1887 

Gerber 

o 

H 

? 

An  absurdity.     V.  p.  253,  ch.  xix. 

1887 

Hovgaard 

S 

S 

C 

V.  p.  242,  ch.  xviii. 

1887 
1887 

Poore  &  Story 
Noury 

8 

S 

C 
Oy 

No  mode  of  propulsion  suggested. 
15-7  tons.    Model  tried  in  Greece. 

1888 

Drzewiecki  V 

S 

? 

? 

150  tons.     Particulars  not  avail- 

1888 

GUSTAVE  ZEDE 

S 

E 

C 

able. 
The  Gymnote.     V.  p.  142,  ch.  xi. 

1889 

Pool    

S 

S 

Cy 

Very  short,   wide  cylinder  with 

coned  bow.   To  dive  or  FLY  1 

1889 

GOUBET  II 

S 

E 

C 

V.  p.  153,  ch.  xii. 

1889 

Apostoloff 

S 

OA 

0 

V.  p.  244,  ch.  xviii. 

1889 

NORDENFELDT  HI 

S 

S 

Cy 

V.  p.  131,  ch.  x. 

1890 

MacDougal 

S 

S 

Submersible  Whaleback. 

1890 

FONTES  DE  MELLO 

.. 

Cy 

No  mode  of  propulsion.     V.  p. 

156,  ch.  xii. 

1890 

Forest 

S 

P&E 

C 

Two  boats.     Elliptical  in  section. 

One    much    longer    than    the 

other. 

1890 

German     NORDEN- 

FELDTS  .. 

S 

S 

C 

V.  p.  149,  ch.  xii. 

1891 

Middleton 

S 

S&E 

? 

No  shape  specified.     Detachable 

central  compartment  forming 

lifeboat. 

1891 

Thomas 

S 

E 

0 

Automatic  boat,  with  float  carry- 

ing   a    torpedo    which    dives 

under  defence  nets  when  bow  of 

boat  strikes  an  obstacle. 

1891 

De  Souza 

S 

Cy 

Made  in  3  separate  parts  which 

can  be  disconnected  in  case  of 

accident,  leaving   a    complete 

boat.      V.  p.  254,  ch.  xix. 

1892 

Sir  G.  Strickland      .  . 

Hy 

P 

C    I 

Protruding  buffer  below  point  of 

bow. 

1892 

MacDougal  II 

S 

S 

S 

Armoured  Whaleback. 

1892 

DEGLI  ABBATI     .  . 

S 

E 

? 

L'Audace.     V.   p.   228,  ch.  xvii. 

1892 

Auer 

S 

E 

C 

Cigar-shaped,    but    the    central 

three-fifths  of  its  length  bulges 

below. 

LIST    OF    THE    PRINCIPAL    SUBMARINES        295 


Date. 

Inventor 

Propul- 
sion. 

Motive 
Power 

Shape. 

Remarks. 

1892 

Goubet 

C 

The  "  Toueur,"  submarine  ferry- 

boat moved  by  cable  passing 

over  three  drums  amidships. 

1892 

BAKER 

S 

S 

O 

V.  p.  161,  ch.  xii. 

1892 

VAX  WITTENS      .  . 

s 

C 

V.  p.  150,  ch.  xii. 

1892 

DE  PULLING 

8 

• 

0 

V.  p.  150,  ch.  xii. 

1892 

Sims  

S 

B 

C 

Drew  power  through  cable  from 

accumulators  on  shore. 

1892 

Holland  VI   .. 

Not   built.     V.  p.  159,   ch.    xii. 

(Plunger  I.) 

1892 

Schwann 

Hy 

P 

? 

65  tons.  To  travel  32  knots  above 

and  15  below  water. 

1892 

FONTES  DE  MELLO 

? 

? 

? 

V.  p.  156,  ch.  xii. 

1893 

Hayden 

S 

E 

Cy 

Conical     ends.       A    Submarine 

Worker. 

1893 

AMMEN 

S 

3 

The  KataMin.    V.  p.  213,  ch.  xvi. 

1893 

ROMAZZOTTI 

s 

E 

C 

The  Gustave  Zede.  F.p.l51,ch.xii. 

1894 

Lacavalerie 

s 

E 

C 

V.  p.  246,  ch.  xviii. 

1894 

Rogers 

s 

E 

C 

V.  p.  247,  ch.  xviii. 

1894 

Piatti  del  Pozzo      .  . 

s 

? 

C 

Formed  of  7  separate  spheres  en- 

closed   in    a    cigar-like    outer 

cover.     Central  and  largest  one 

detachable  to  serve  as  lifeboat. 

1894 

Freese  &  Gawn 

s 

SE 

C 

Air  supply  through  buoyed  tube. 

1894 

Allen  

s 

E 

C 

Australian     invention.       Model 

tried  at  Sydney,  N.S.W. 

1894 

LAKE 

w 

H 

s 

The  Argonaut  Junior.     F.  p.  157, 

ch.  xii. 

1896 

Drzewiecki  VI 

s 

SE 

C 

190  tons.     To  go  15  knots  above 

and  12  below  water. 

1896 

Rutley 

s 

P&E 

C 

Dynamos  driven  by  oil  engines. 

Horizontal  propellers  in  wells 

for  immersion. 

1896 

Vassel 

s 

P 

C 

Bronze  in  3  sections  bolted  to- 

gether.    Very  like  Goubet. 

1896 

ALVARY-TEMPLO 

s 

F 

C 

V.  p.  156,  ch.  xii.     (The  "  Aqua- 

pede.") 

1896 

Philippeau 

s 

P&E 

P 

Shaped  rather  like  an  elongated 

lemon.     Double  hull. 

1897 

PIATTI  DEL  POZZO 

s 

H&  E 

Sp 

La  France.     V.  p.  226,  ch.  xvii. 

1897 

LAKE 

s 

E 

0 

Argonaut  I.     V.  p.  229,  ch.  xvii. 

Altered  to  n  in  1900. 

1897 

Hinsdale 

s 

P&E 

C 

Suspended  above  a  platform  on 

the   air-tube.      A   Submarine 

Worker. 

1897 

HOLLAND  Vn       .  . 

s 

S&E 

C 

Flattened  cigar-shaped  (Plunger 

II  ).     V.  p.  159,  ch.  xii. 

1897 

Romazzotti  <fc  Maugas 

s 

E 

? 

Details  not  available. 

1898 

Moller(Carl).. 

? 

? 

? 

Nondescript     shape.     Telescopic 

compartment      for      captain. 

Buoyant  torpedoes  as  in  Tuck's 

Peacemaker.    V.  p.  255,  ch.  xix. 

1898 

MacLaine 

? 

? 

? 

Submersible   battleship,   400   ft. 

long  with  16  twelve-inch  guns. 

1898 

Paul   

s 

? 

Cy 

Short  cylinder  with  spherical  bow 

from     which     rises    conning- 

tower.      Displacement  altered 

as  in  Rogers'  submarine. 

1898 

Tore  

C 

French  Naval  Lieutenant's  idea 

for  a  submersible.  Cigar-shaped 

hulljheavilyplatedabovewater. 

296 


APPENDIX  I 


Date. 

Inventor. 

Propul- 
sion. 

Motive 
Power. 

Shape. 

Remarks. 

1898 

Urzua-Curat 

Hy 

? 

0 

Fitted  with  bags  like   Borelli's 

boat.     V.  p.  189,  ch.  xiv. 

1898 

Elias  

S 

OA 

c 

The  "Anthrotorpedo."  V.  p.  254, 

ch.  xix. 

1898 

Homan 

S 

? 

0 

Pivoted     mast    with     look-out 

chamber  at  top.     This  can  be 

folded  down  flat  along  upper 

surface  of  boat,  and  elevated 

by  rack  and  pinion  till  the  top 

appears  at  the  surface  to  re- 

connoitre. 

1898 

GOUBBT 

S 

E 

0 

For  the  Brazilian  Navy.      V.  p. 

156,  ch.  xii.  ;  p.  189,  ch.  xiv. 

1898 

Vogt  

S 

S 

0 

High-speed        semi-submersible. 

Cigar-shaped  under  water,  with 

light  hull   above.     Something 

like  Burger's  boat.     V.  p.  248, 
ch.  xviii. 

1899 

Atkinson 

? 

? 

? 

Model  tried  in  Public  Swimming 
Baths,     Buckingham     Palace 

Road. 

1899 

ROMAZZOTTI 

S 

E 

C 

The  Morse.     V.  p.  171,  ch.  xiii. 

1899 

Rigaud 

S 

0 

The  "  Hydrophilos."  Egg-shaped 

worker  on  4  legs.     V.  p.  227, 

ch.  xvii. 

1899 

Body 

? 

? 

Oy 

Conical  ends.      Made  in  10  sec- 

tions.    Several  torpedoes,  one 

behind  the  other,  in  long  cen- 

tral tube. 

1899 

Anonymous 

S 

E 

P 

English  inventor.     Double  hull. 

1900 

Dobson 

S 

.  . 

P 

Proposed  fish-shaped  submarine. 

Propellers     arranged     as     in 

Baker's  boat. 

1900 

Hoffman 

.  . 

Invention  of  an  Austrian  officer. 

Details  not  available. 

1900 

Anonymous  (J.  R.)  .  . 

S 

S 

3 

Semi-submersible      "  Water-pro- 

tected torpedo-boat." 

1900 

Hudson-Maxim 

S 

G 

? 

To  be  driven  by  gas  generated 

by  the   explosion  of  sticks  of 

"  Motorite  "  and  to  carry  both 

submarine  and  aerial  torpedoes. 

1900 

Argles 

S 

P&E 

P 

Oval  in  cross-section.     Submer- 

sion  by   horizontal   propeller. 

Rudder  and  screw  below  points 

of  boat  at  each  end.     An  Aus- 

tralian invention. 

1900 

Howard 

? 

? 

? 

Invented  by  a  Tasmanian.  Model 

said  to  have  been  tried  with 

good  results. 

1900 

Drzewiecki  VH       .  . 

? 

? 

? 

A  submersible. 

APPENDIX   II 

TABLE     OF    SUBMARINE    TORPEDO-BOATS    BUILT,    BUILDING    OR 
PROJECTED    FOR  THE  NAVIES   OF  THE   WORLD 


297 


APPENDIX    II 


TABLE  OF  SUBMARINE  TORPEDO-BOATS  BUILT, 
BUILDING  OR  PROJECTED  FOR  THE  NAVIES  OF 
THE  WORLD. 

THESE  tables  have  been  compiled  from  the  latest  editions  of 
Brassey's  "  Naval  Annual,"  Jane's  "  Fighting  Ships,"  from  Bur- 
goyne's  and  Pesce's  works  on  Submarine  Navigation,  and  from 
various  naval  and  other  journals.  The  British,  French,  Italian, 
and  Japanese  lists  are  probably  approximately  correct,  and  the 
United  States  tables  as  well.  As  regards  the  French,  there  seems 
to  be  some  difference  of  opinion  as  to  which  boats  are  to  be  reckoned 
as  "  Submarines "  and  which  as  "  Submersibles."  Generally 
speaking,  the  table  follows  a  list  recently  published  in  France  as  to 
this  point. 

The  German  and  Russian  lists  are  possibly  not  quite  as  accurate 
on  account  of  the  way  in  which  these  nations  have  prevented 
information  leaking  out  to  the  press.  The  German  submarine 
flotilla  is  very  probably  somewhat  stronger  than  is  here  shown. 
In  the  Russian  list  Jane's  "  Fighting  Ships  " — generally  particularly 
well  informed  as  to  naval  matters  in  Russia — is  pretty  closely 
followed.  The  spelling  of  the  Russian  names  must  be  accepted  for 
what  it  is  worth.  Authorities  differ  widely  as  to  this.  Where 
figures  are  doubtful  or  unknown  a  query  (?)  is  inserted. 


Name. 

Date  of 
Launch. 

Tons. 

Speed. 

Lgth. 

Beam. 

Crew. 

Remarks. 

Above 

Below 

BRITISH. 
Holland  1  .  . 

Holland  2 
Holland  3 
Holland  4 
Holland  5 
Al 

A2 
A3 
A4 
A5 

1901-3 

1903-4 
1904-5 

120 
submerged 

Knots 
8 

Knots 
5 

Ft. 
63-33 

Ft. 
11-75 

7 

Built  Vickers. 

Surface  dis- 
placement of 
Al  rather  less 
than  180  tons. 
Next  3  boats 
200  tons  when 
submerged. 

180 

submerged 

ii 

7 

100 

10 

?1 

! 

1 

200 
submerged 

16 

9 

150 

11-5 

299 


300 


APPENDIX    II 


Name. 

Date  of 
Launch. 

Tons. 

Speed. 

Lgth. 

Beam. 

Crew. 

Remarks. 

Above 

Below 

A6 
A7 
A8 
A9 
A  10 
All 
A  12 
A  13 
Bl 

B2 
B3 
B4 
B5 
B6 
B7 
B8 
B9 
BIO 
Bll 
01 

02 
03 
04 
05 
06 
07 
08 
09 
010 
Oil 
012 
013 
014 
015 
016 
017 
018 
019 
020 
0  21-0  30 

1904-5 
1904-6 

1906-7 

1908 
Building 

200 

submerged 

Knots 
16 

Knots 
9 

Ft. 
150 

Ft. 
11-5 

•• 

Two  Screws. 

300 
submerged 

13 

9 

150 

13-5 

? 

•• 

•• 

•• 

•• 

314 

submerged 

14 

10 

150 

13-5 

? 

•• 

•• 

•• 

13  Boats  projected  in  Naval  Programme  for  1908-9  "  D  "  Class. 


FRENCH. 
Submarines. 
Gymnote  . . 
Gustave  Z6de 
Morse 
Algerien 
Francais 
Kerrigan 
Gnome 
Lutin 
Farfadet 
Nalade 
Protee 
Perle 
Bsturgeon 


1888 
1893 
1899 
1900 

1901 


1901-3 


30 
270 
146 
143 

185 

6 
10 
12 
13 

12 

3 
5 

8 

• 

59-6 
160 
118 

135 

6 
12-5 
9 

9-5 

4 
8 
9 

68 

8 

4-5 

77 

7-5 

SUBMARINE    TORPEDO-BOATS   BUILT 


301 


Name. 

Date  of 
Launch. 

Tons. 

Speed. 

Lgth. 

Beam 

Crew. 

Remarks. 

Above 

Below. 

Bonite 
Thon 
Souffleur 
Dorade 
Lynx 
Ludion 
Loutre 
Castor 
Phoque 
Otarie 
Meduse 
Oursin 
Grondin 
Anguille 
Alose 
Truite 
Emeraude 
Opale 
Rubis 
Saphir 
Topaze 
Turquoise 
Guepe  1     . 
Guepe  2     . 
Q  51  (Pluvoise)    .  . 
Q  52  (Tentose)     .  . 
Q  53  (Nivose)       .  . 
Q  54  (Germinal)  .  . 
Q  55  (Floreal) 
Q  56  (Prairial)     .  . 
§57  (Messidor)    .  . 
58  (Thermidor) 
Q  59  (Fructidor)  .  . 
Q  60  (Vendmiaire) 

Q  61 
Q  62  (Brumaire)  .  . 
Q  63  (Frimaire)    .  . 
Q  64  (Papin) 
Q  65  (Fresnel)      .  . 
Q  66  (Berthelot)  .  . 
Q  67  (Monge) 
Q  68  (Ampere)     .  . 
Q  69  (Guy-Lussac) 

Thirty 

Submersibles. 

Narval 
Sirene 
Triton 
Silure 
Espadon 
Omega 
Cigogne 
Aigrette 

z   ! 

Y    .. 
Circe 

1901-3 

1906 
1907 
1908 

1908 
1907 
1907 

Building 
1907 

Building 

1908 
Building 

five  more 

1899 
1901 

1905 
1904 

1904 

1905 
1907 

68 

Knots 
8 

Knots 
4-5 

Ft. 
77 

Ft. 
7-5 

According     t  o 
some  authori- 
ties these  are 
Submersibles 

These    two    a 
little  different 
to    the    other 
"  Q's." 
De  Dion  Boat. 

Laboeu£  Type. 

200    tons  sub- 
merged. 

200    tons    sub- 
merged. 

400 

12 

8 

147 

is" 

22  \ 

( 

( 

44 

9 

5 

70 

7-5 

4 

398 

12-2 

8 

160 

16-4 

24 

-j 

\ 

21 
398 

? 
12 

? 
8 

? 

160 

? 
16-4 

? 
24 

'  Q  "  Subm 

106 
155 

arines 

12 
8 

(Nos.  7 

8 

0  to  1 
111-5 

34)  pro 
12-4 

jected. 

9{ 
10  I 

301 
175 

11 
10-5 

8 
8 

160-6 
118 

13-9 
12-75 

20  , 
20{ 

168 
202 
213 
351 

10-5 
11 

is 

8 
8 

V 

128 
135-8 
144 
155 

10-2 
9-1 
9-1 
14-5 

15 
20 
15 
? 

302 


APPENDIX  II 


Date  of 

Tons. 

SP 

eed. 

Ljjth 

Crew 

Name. 

Launch. 

Above 

Below 

Knots. 

Knots. 

Ft. 

Ft. 

Calypso 

1907 

351 

13 

? 

155 

14-5 

? 

Tons  submgd. 

A    .  

Projected 

577 

15 

10 

197 

? 

? 

810 

B    

530 

210 

? 

? 

623 

0     

•• 

550 

184 

? 

? 

735 

ITALIAN. 

Delfino 
(as  reconstructed) 

1894 

95 

9 

5 

79 

10 

»{ 

107    tons   sub- 
merged. 

Tritone 

1902 

? 

8 

5 

59 

? 

5 

Glauco 
Squalo 

1906-7 

150 

14 

9-9 

118 

13 

? 

Narvalo 
Otaria 

•• 

•• 

14 

Tricheco    .  . 

..  ( 

220    tons    sub- 

*Poca       .. 

1908 

175 

is 

V 

138 

ii 

n 

merged,  by 

I 

F.  I.  A.  T.  Co. 

*Seven  others  of  this  class   building  or  projected. 


GERMAN. 

Howalt   Boat 

1901 

85 

7 

6 

49-25 

6-5 

3 

Holland  1 

1902 

120 

7 

5 

64 

12 

5 

240    tons    sub- 

Submarine  U  1 
Submarine   U  2 

1906 
1908 

180 

12 

9 

128 

117 

10  \ 

10  ; 

merged.  Arm- 
oured  Con 

Submarine  US 

ning  tower. 

Submarine  U  4.   .  . 

Building 

•• 

•  • 

Four  others  projected. 


Lake  Boat  1 
Lake  Boat  2 
Lake  Boat  3 
Lake  Boat  4 

UNITED    STATES. 

Holland     . . 
Adder 
Grampus 
Mocassin    . . 
Pike 
Plunger 
Porpoise    . . 
Shark 

Octopus     . . 
Cuttlefish  . . 
Viper 
Tarantula 
Burger  Boat  1 
Burger  Boat  2 
Burger  Boat  3 
Burger  Boat  4 
Lake  Boat 

RUSSIA. 
Ossetyr      . . 


Building 
in  America 


1896 
1901-2 


1906 

1906 

Building 


1902 


74 
120 

8 
8 

5 
5 

54 
63-33 

11 
11-75 

5 

9 

278 
170 

ii 

10 

io 

9 

106 

80-5 

V 
12-5 

'?' 

? 

V 

V 

V 

104-9 

V 

'?' 

? 
L70 

? 
11 

? 

7 

? 
70 

? 
11 

? 
? 

Protectors  " 


Semi  -  submer- 
sible. 

"Protector" 

type.  8  others 
of  this  class 
projected. 


Ex     " 
tor." 


Protec- 


SUBMARINE  TORPEDO-BOATS   BUILT 


Name. 

Date  of 
Launch. 

Tons. 

Speed. 

Lgth. 

Beam. 

Crew 

Remarks. 

Above 

Below 

Knots 

Knots 

Ft. 

Ft. 

Schtschuka 

1903-5 

?450 

9 

7 

?150 

p 

? 

Kassatka 

p 

? 

Skat 

p 

p 

Sterliad 

p 

9 

Improved 

Forel 

•  • 

•• 

? 

? 

'•  Protectors." 

Byeluga 

* 

* 

;; 

;; 

p 

p 

Som 

9 

p 

p       •> 

Graf  Schmertef    .  . 

1903-5 

175 

i 

5 

77? 

?  14 

? 

"  Hollands." 

Okuny 

? 

Sig  .  . 

P 

Piotwa 

p 

Pescar 

P 

Kefal 

• 

Makryei 

1904-6 

6 

10 

5 

50 

14 

P 

Pukaloff  Boats. 

Kata 

?            ( 

Was     lost     off 

Bytschok 

? 

Vladivosto  c  k 

Nalim 

?       ^ 

during      war, 

1 

but  is    to  be 

—_;-.  j 

Paltus 

1903? 

113 

10 

5 

80 

14 

V 

nuBOGL 

Drzewiecki. 

Petr  Kochka 

1902 

60 

« 

V 

50 

ii 

t{ 

Kuteinikoff  and 
KolbasiefE. 

Delphin      I 

1903 

175 

10 

8 

77 

14 

24 

Bubnoff  Boat. 

n 

p 

,     in 

n 

IV 

? 

,          V 

VI 

p 

Built    at    Kiel 

D'Equevilley   I    .  . 
D'Equevilley  II  .  . 

1905 
1906 

200 

12 

9 

130 

9-10 

(240  tons  sub- 
merged). 

(Karas) 

D'Equevilley  HI 
(Kambala) 

1906 

Krokodil      . 

1908 

400 

14? 

7? 

p 

p 

?  ^j 

Kaiman 
Draken 

I 

\ 

At  Petersburg. 
"  Protectors." 

Aligator 

p 

p 

p 

p 

p    1 

Akula 

360 

p 

p 

p 

p 

p 

At  Kiel. 

Minoga 

• 

177 

? 

? 

? 

? 

? 

SWEDEN'. 

. 

Enroth 

1902 

146 

12 

8 

82 

14 

p 

Hajen  1     .  . 

1903 

120 

10 

7 

71 

12 

6 

Hajen  2     .  . 
Hajen  3     .  . 

.. 

submerged 

Projected. 
Improved 
"Hajen  s." 

> 

Submersible  1      .  . 

Building 

180 

15 

9 

139-5 

14 

/ 

By  F.LA.T.  Co. 
230  tons  sub- 

\_ 

merged. 

AUSTRIA. 

Lake  (4)  .  . 

Building 

250 

12 

7 

160 

10-5 

2  at  Pola.    2  at 

Fiume. 

Holland  (2) 
D'Equevilley  (3)  .  . 

Building 

296 

I 

* 

? 

* 

? 

At  Barrow. 
At  Kiel. 

304 


APPENDIX  II 


Date  of 

Sp 

eed. 

Launch. 

Above 

Below 

Lgtn. 

Beam. 

Remarks. 

NORWAY. 

Knots 

Knots 

Ft. 

Ft. 

Holland  1 
F.  I.  A.  T.  1 
D'Equevilley    1  .  . 

Building 

260 

\ 

| 

| 

i 

| 

At  Kiel. 

SPAIN. 

Peral 

1889 

87 

10 

? 

70 

8-5 

? 

PORTUGAL. 

Plongeur   .. 
Fontes   m 

1892 
1901 

100 

6 

I 

72 

11 

6 

HOLLAND. 

Luctor  et  Emerge 

1906 

? 

? 

? 

66 

11 

9 

A  "  Holland." 

BRAZIL. 

Jacinto  Gomez     .  . 
Mello   Marques    .  . 

1903 

25 

6 

? 

? 

? 

? 

"  Goubets." 

5   "  Hollands  " 

Building 

ARGENTINA. 

Submarine 
(Recaldoni) 
Several  "Hollands  " 

1901 

projected. 

? 

? 

? 

? 

? 

? 

CHILI. 
Urzua-Curat 

JAPAN. 

Building 

' 

' 

' 

' 

' 

'{ 

Possibly      the 
one  projected 
in   1898.       V. 
Appendix  I. 

Holland  1 
2 

1904 

120 

8 

7 

65 

12 

? 

3 

4 

5 

Japanese  built  1 
,,     2 

1906 

62 
86 

? 

? 

? 

? 

? 

Submarine  1 
2 

1908 
1908 

314 

14 

8 

135 

13-5 

H 

Like       British 
"  C  "  Class. 

3 
4 

Building 

•• 

•• 

5 

6 

7 

Russian  Type  1 

? 

? 

? 

? 

? 

? 

tured    in  the 
war. 

Printed  by  Hazell,  Watson  &  Viney,  Ld.,  London  and  Aylesbury. 


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